Adani Ports sells 49% stake in Vizhinjam port to shipping major MSC's unit in $1.4 bn deal

Mumbai: Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd, the cash cow of the Adani Group, on Tuesday said it has agreed to sell 49% stake in its transshipment port at Vizhinjam in Kerala in a $1.4 billion ( ₹13,225 crore) deal to global shipping major Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC).

Terminal Investment Ltd, a unit of MSC, will pay $539 million for a 49% stake in Adani Vizhinjam Port Pvt. Ltd . (AVPPL), a 100% subsidiary of Adani Ports. The investor will pay an additional $858 million by December 2028 as its share of the costs for a $1.75 billion capacity expansion project at the port, an Adani Ports release said.

The port's capacity is being expanded to 4.1 million standard containers a year from 1.6 million at present, with eventual plans to expand to 5.7 million.

The partnership with the global shipping line is expected to not just help free cash for Adani Ports but also to predictably bring in more traffic. As part of the collaboration, the Vizhinjam port will get better volume visibility and a faster ramp-up, Adani Ports said. The port will get a higher share of cargo from Bangladesh, which today largely goes through competing transshipment hubs in Southeast Asia.

Shares of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone rose 1% in early trade Tuesday to ₹1,794.45 at 11 am. The stock has risen by over a fifth since January.

“Vizhinjam port has emerged as a premier transshipment hub and ramped up at an unprecedented pace, becoming the first Indian port to earn the unique distinction of crossing 2 million TEUs within 18 months of operations,” Ashwani Gupta, a whole-time director and the chief executive of Adani Ports, was quoted as saying.

Transshipment ports are hubs of global shipping where containers from one ship are loaded onto another for forward journey, akin to how global airport hubs like Dubai work for human passengers. The proximity of Vizhinjam port to a global shipping corridor and its deep natural draft have the potential to make it the first globally-competitive transshipment port in India.

Th world's top transshipment ports include Singapore, Tanjung Pelepas in Malaysia, Busan in South Korea, Tanger Med in Morocco and Shanghai in China. Singapore handles over 40 million containers a year.

In its first year of operations that ended December 2025, the Vizhinjam port handled 1.3 million containers from 615 vessels, becoming the fastest Indian port to cross the 1-million-container milestone. Within 18 months, the port surpassed the 2-million-container milestone, and this month, it handled its 1,000th vessel.

“I am delighted to expand APSEZ’s long-standing partnership with MSC to Vizhinjam, as we prepare for the port’s next leg of journey," CEO Gupta said. "I am confident that our association will deliver enhanced supply chain efficiencies at a global scale and improve India’s access to key global mature and developing markets.”