Essar Ports complies with minimum public shareholding as per SEBI norms
Port of Antwerp International UK Limited, a subsidiary of the Port of Antwerp, has converted the Global Depository Shares (GDS) held by it in Essar Ports Ltd, one of India’s leading private port and terminal operators, into equity shares, bringing down the Promoter holding in Essar Ports to 74.97%, said in the company's press release.
Essar Ports Limited, confirmed today that it is in compliance of the Minimum Public Shareholding requirement as per SEBI norms subsequent to the conversion of GDS by Port of Antwerp. This was done as per the SEBI approval received earlier.
Essar Ports had earlier announced successful completion of its Offer for Sale process for sale of equity shares of the Company, aggregating to 5.33% of the paid up share capital of the Company. The balance dilution was to be achieved by way of conversion of GDS held by Port of Antwerp International UK Limited as they had expressed their desire to convert the GDS into equity shares of Essar Ports.
With this conversion, Essar Ports Limited is now in compliance of the SEBI minimum public shareholding requirement, with the Essar Group holding going down to 74.97%, and has intimated the Stock Exchanges and SEBI of the same.
About Essar Ports
Essar Ports Limited is one of the largest private port companies in India, with a current capacity of 104MMTPA. The capacity is being expanded to 181MMTPA over the next few years. Essar Ports has three operational terminals at Hazira, Vadinar and Paradip. Hazira terminal is an all-weather, deep-draft terminal with 30MMTPA of dry bulk and break bulk cargo handling capacity. Vadinar terminal is also an all-weather, deep-draft terminal with 58MMTPA of liquid cargo handling capacity. Paradip terminal was commissioned in December 2012 and is an all-weather, deep-draft terminal with 16MMTPA of dry bulk cargo handling capacity.
Essar Ports is currently developing one terminal at Paradip, which will be a coal berth of 14MMTPA capacity. The company is also setting up a dry bulk terminal at Salaya with a capacity of 20MMTPA. Additionally, the company plans to expand its Hazira terminal capacity by 20MMTPA taking its capacity to 50MMTPA. With this new project at Visakhapatnam port, EPL’s capacity under construction will increase by further 23MMTPA to 181 MMTPA.