APM Terminals keen on buying Reliance Naval and Engineering

APM Terminals, the parent company of Gujarat Pipavav Terminals, is interested in acquiring Anil Ambani’s shipyard Reliance Naval and Engineering, which is currently undergoing a resolution process at the bankruptcy courts.
Other plans include a 700-crore expansion of its own terminal to handle bigger ships, said Jakob Sorenson, managing director of Gujarat Pipavav (GPL), the local unit of APM. He added that the Indian company may also look at buying more ports.

“I am hoping that we will get a positive outcome because there will be some very good synergies with GPL,” Sorenson told ET about its parent’s plans for Reliance Naval. He said that APM Terminals had a stronger balance sheet to take on such an investment.

GPL is located right next to the Reliance Naval facility on the Gujarat water margin.

He added that the shipyard was hit by Cyclone Tauktae and that may bring down its price a bit.

“India's biggest dry dock is available in that yard. And I think the waterfront will be very much an interesting part to integrate with the operations of GPL. So, there are a lot of exciting things in the future if that is a success,” he added.

“What I'm hoping for is that we can develop some of the waterfront, which today is nothing more than a border between GPL and Reliance Naval. That is a potential opportunity for us to do that. There's an offshore activity that goes on in the shipyards and we are running some supply services from our jetty,” said Sorenson.

To be sure, the company had no plans to get into shipbuilding in India. The shipyard went into insolvency after it defaulted on loans worth Rs 11,000 crore to its lenders.