India’s Adani Group has stepped up its interest in shipping by taking a controlling stake in Dubai shipowner Astro Offshore.
The Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) unit said it is paying $185m in an all-cash deal for 80% of a company controlling 26 offshore support vessels (OSVs).
Astro was founded in Singapore in 2009.
It set up in Dubai the year after that, bought its first ship in 2011 and now has 300 staff and five offices.
VesselsValue lists 13 ships in the fleet worth $96m: 11 anchor-handling tugs/supply units, a platform supply vessel and a maintenance & support ship.
Adani Group already has five offshore utility ships as part of a fleet of 18 bulkers, tankers and container ships.
The takeover implies an enterprise value for Astro of $235m.
The existing owners of Astro will retain 20%.
APSEZ is India’s biggest terminals and logistics company.
It said the acquisition is part of its “road map to becoming one of the world’s largest marine operators”.
Profitable from the start
“The transaction is expected to be value accretive from the first year itself,” it added.
Astro operates in the Middle East, India, Asia and Africa.
It is also a third-party manager.
Clients include NMDC, McDermott, COOEC, Larsen & Toubro and Saipem.
“Astro leverages an efficient mix of medium to long-term contracts with customers, which allows it to maintain high fleet utilisation and benefit from increasing charter rates, driven by a limited supply of OSV fleet globally,” APSEZ said.
APSEZ chief executive Ashwani Gupta said: “Astro will add 26 OSVs to our current fleet of 142 tugs and dredgers, taking the total count to 168.
“The acquisition will also give us access to an impressive roster of tier-1 customers while further consolidating our footprint across the Arabian Gulf, the Indian subcontinent and Far East Asia.”
The deal is expected to close within a month, with no regulatory approvals needed.
Astro managing director Mark Humphreys said: “Over the past 15 years, we have created an impressive company trajectory, driven by strategic investments in our OSV fleet and deep relationships with our customers.
“This partnership with APSEZ represents a critical inflection point for us. Together, we can accelerate growth to add further scale and diversity to our fleet mix, expand our geographical footprint and deliver more end-to-end solutions to our customers.”
Fearnley Offshore Supply and Fearnley Securities were financial advisers for Astro on the takeover, with legal counsel coming from Watson Farley & Williams.
