A.P. Moller Capital leads fray to buy GIP's stake in Pristine Logistics

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ET Infra had earlier reported that A.P. Møller Capital P/S, part of the A.P. Moller Group, is said to be among entities seeking to buy GIP's Pristine Logistics stake.

Queries sent to Pristine Logistics, AP Moller Capital, MidRail and EQT remained unanswered till press time. A Temasek spokesperson said: "As a matter of policy, we do not comment on behalf of our portfolio companies, including our JVs". Pristine Logistics, which is in the rail-focused logistics business, was founded in 2008 by former Indian Railways officials Amit Kumar and Rajnish Kumar.

The company operates five logistics parks through its subsidiaries, in Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh), Ludhiana (Punjab), Siliguri (West Bengal), Patna (Bihar) and Birgunj (Nepal). According to the company website, Pristine owns warehousing area of around 900,000 sq. ft and approximately 2,624 domestic standard containers and 395 dwarf containers.

It also operates around 390 trailers and 37 rakes. Last year, Pristine acquired debt-ridden Sical Logistics, a listed entity, for about ₹400 crore through the National Company law Tribunal. In November, it also acquired Distribution Logistics Infrastructure Pvt.

Ltd and its group companies (DLI India) from the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) London-listed Infrastructure India Plc in a stock and cash deal. In 2022, the company had filed for an initial public offering (IPO) to raise about ₹250 crore, and Sebi had approved the the IPO in October that year. The company, however, did not go ahead with a listing.

Its prospectus showed that IIF-II, the fund currently managed by GIP, holds about 30.86 million shares or about 57% of the stake. Through the IPO, GIP aimed to sell 17.77 millionshares. Pristine had planned to use the IPO proceeds