This would be the first time the airport business is raising equity capital from an external investor.
“Everyone wants to do airports with us – investors from the US, Middle East and Australia have evinced interest in investing in the business,” said Sagar Adani, nephew of group chairman Gautam Adani. Sagar Adani is also executive director, Adani Green Energy.
The airport unit, fully owned by Adani Enterprises Ltd, is valued at around $20 billion, according to sources, higher than GMR Airport’s market capitalisation of $10.4 billion. GMR runs airports in New Delhi, Hyderabad, Goa and Nagpur among others.
As per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, India recorded a 10.35% annual growth in domestic air passenger traffic in FY25.
Riding expansion wave
Airlines carried a total of 14.54 million passengers.
CareEdge Ratings projects air passenger traffic in India to rise at a 9% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) between FY25 and FY27, taking the volume to 485 million.
With airports in Mumbai-Navi Mumbai and other key locations, AAHL aims to ride on this expansion to triple capacity over the next decade and a half.
AAHL, India’s largest private airport operator, runs seven of them currently — Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram — and is putting the finishing touches to the one at Navi Mumbai that’s set to open in August.
The company is currently fully funded but may look to bring in additional capital depending on timing and market conditions.
“We also have not decided whether we want to do it or not yet. So what we are thinking about is — is it a good idea for us to do it right now or should we wait two-three years once the build-out happens and the value is established,” said Adani CFO Singh.
GMR Group had secured a ₹6,300 crore investment from Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) to reduce debt at its promoter entity GMR Enterprises (GEPL) in January.
“We are open to acquisitions in India and internationally,” Singh said. “For international deals, it will have to be an international city pair which caters to an Indian diaspora. If there’s a lot of Indian passengers going to a specific airport in some other city in the world, and if that opportunity comes up, we will look at that.”
The airport business will be hived off as a separate subsidiary in the next two-three years, followed by listing.
AAHL served 94 million passengers in FY25, up 7% from FY24.
