Maersk says will invest $5 billion in India, but conditions apply
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Mumbai: A.P. Moller-Maersk has offered to invest up to $5 billion in India to expand its local operations, but about $2 billion of this is contingent upon the shipping and logistics major getting an extension of its 30-year concession for the Pipavav port in Gujarat that expires in September 2028.
A similarly large chunk of the proposed $5 billion investment is contingent upon the company winning a bid to develop a container terminal at the upcoming Vadhavan Port near Mumbai. The company did not disclose the timeline over which this capital will be invested. Also Read | Cochin Shipyard signs MoU with Maersk amid India's ₹25,000 cr boost plan The investment in Pipavav is proposed to go towards expanding the capacity of the port by increasing its draft—the depth of the waters—so that it can handle larger sea vessels, and to build new berths and bigger yards, so that it can handle more cargo.
But the investment will only happen if the Gujarat government extends the concession given to Gujarat Pipavav Port Ltd, the listed company that operates the port. "We will have to get a certainty of whether we will stay or not, because the paybacks of these will be measured in decades," said Keith Svendsen, chief executive officer (CEO) of APM Terminals, an independent unit of Maersk. It owns a 44.01% stake in the listed company which has a market capitalization of just over ₹6,000 crore.
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