Ashwani Gupta, Whole-time Director & CEO, APSEZ, said, “Astro’s acquisition is part of our roadmap to becoming one of the world’s largest marine operators. Astro will add 26 OSVs to our current fleet of 142 tugs and dredgers, taking the total count to 168.”
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Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) on Friday announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 80 per cent stake in Astro, in an all-cash deal for $185 million, implying an EV of $235 million and EV / FY25E EBITDA at 4.4x. The transaction is expected to be value accretive from the first year itself, it said in a regulatory filing.
Astro is a global OSV operator in the Middle East, India, Far East Asia and Africa and owns a fleet of 26 OSVs comprising of Anchor Handling Tugs (AHTs), flat top barges, Multipurpose Support Vessels (MPSVs) and workboats and provides vessel management and complementary services. During the year ending 30 April 2024, Astro posted $95 million revenue and $41 million EBITDA.
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Astro has Tier-1 customers including NMDC, McDermott, COOEC, Larsen & Toubro and Saipem and is a key player in the offshore construction & fabrication and offshore transportation markets.
Ashwani Gupta, Whole-time Director & CEO, APSEZ, said, “Astro’s acquisition is part of our roadmap to becoming one of the world’s largest marine operators. 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. We look forward to working closely with Astro’s leadership team and scaling up the current platform.”
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Mark Humphreys, Managing Director, Astro Offshore, 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.”
There are no regulatory approvals required and the transaction is expected to close within a month, subject to fulfilment of operational conditions precedent, Adani Ports said.
