Mumbai: Adani Power Ltd (APL) has made distressed assets a key plank of its expansion, emerging as one of the top acquirers under India’s decade-old bankruptcy law. Its proposed takeover of GVK Energy Ltd would be its eighth through the insolvency process, a strategy that has allowed the country’s largest private thermal power producer to add capacity at a fraction of the cost of building from scratch, and turn several stranded plants into cash-generating assets.
A third of Adani Power’s 18.3-gigawatt (GW) operational capacity today comes from companies it acquired under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC). The company bought these assets at a significant discount to what it would cost to create new capacity, giving it a sharply low cost per megawatt of power generation capacity, experts said.
Besides these eight assets, the company has also acquired two power plants with 1,700MW capacity outside of the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP), including one from Adani Energy Solutions Ltd, the power transmission and distribution arm of the conglomerate.
In all, it has added a total of 7.8GW of capacity through acquisitions, including the creditor-approved deal for GVK Energy, as per an Adani Power investor presentation dated 7 September.
“Historically, APL has used the strategy of acquiring distressed or stranded thermal assets at a steep discount to greenfield replacement costs and then ramping up their utilization as a repeatable, capital-efficient growth lever,” analysts at brokerage Motilal Oswal noted in a report earlier this month. The acquisitions largely came through the insolvency process, they noted.
The company paid around ₹21-28 per watt of power generation capacity for the four companies it acquired through the process between 2019 and 2024, as per Motilal Oswal. It paid ₹67 per watt for Vidarbha Industries Power Ltd that it acquired from CIRP last year and for the assets of Jaiprakash Associates it bought earlier this year.
This compares to ₹49 per watt that Torrent Power paid Larsen & Toubro for acquiring Nabha Power earlier this year and ₹89 per watt that JSW Energy paid for KSK Mahanadi last year. The latter was the largest power sector acquisition from CIRP with an operational capacity of 1,800MW and another 1,800MW under construction.
Adani Power is the top acquirer of power assets through corporate insolvency. Barring asset reconstruction companies, it is the largest standalone strategic acquirer of stressed assets through this route.
India's largest conglomerates including Adani, Reliance, JSW, and Tata are among the top acquirers over the past decade under the insolvency resolution process, Mint reported in April.
Then, the turnaround
Low acquisition costs aside, Adani Power has also been effective at turning around these stranded assets post acquisition and generating cash from them, per the Motilal Oswal analysts.
For instance, Essar Power MP Ltd, which Adani Power acquired in November 2021 and renamed to Mahan Energen Ltd, has gone from making about ₹550 crore earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (Ebitda) that year to about ₹1,600 crore in FY26. The asset has cumulatively generated ₹6,310 crore in Ebitda since the acquisition compared to the ₹2,500-crore acquisition cost.
“The company's acquisitions have comfortably paid back the investment costs through cumulative cash generation, reinforcing capital allocation discipline,” the analysts noted.
Recent acquisitions
Adani Power on Sunday said its ₹5,725-crore resolution plan for GVK Energy had been approved by the company’s creditors, and it will thus get access to 330MW hydropower assets of the company.
Prior to this, the company acquired thermal power assets of Jaiprakash Associates in May: 180MW thermal power plants at Churk in Uttar Pradesh, a 24% stake in Jaiprakash Power Ventures and an 11.49% stake in Prayagraj Power Generation Co. for ₹4,193 crore.
Other acquisitions it has made through CIRP include GMR Chhattisgarh Energy Ltd (2019), Korba West Power Co. Ltd (2019), Essar Power MP Ltd (2021), Lanco Amarkantak Power (2024), Coastal Energen Pvt. Ltd (2024), and Vidarbha Industries Power (2025).
“Our capacity expansion programme is progressing at an excellent pace,” S.B. Khyalia, the chief executive officer of Adani Power, said in an investor call on 23 July. “We are expanding both organically and through strategic acquisitions. Our balance sheet remains robust and supportive of our 45-GW vision.”
Expansion strategy
Adani Power plans to add 23.7GW of new power generation capacity, of which 10.9GW will be at the sites it has acquired through CIRP. This will boost the company’s total power generation capacity to 42GW by FY32, taking the company far ahead of its private sector peers and closer to state-owned thermal power giant NTPC Ltd, which has about 61GW of standalone thermal capacity.
What is helping the company rapidly expand its organic capacity addition is that it placed orders for boilers, turbines and generators for its entire 23.7GW addition in advance, the company management said at the July investor call. This gives the company an edge over its competition at a time when a shortage of this equipment is throttling the pace at which thermal power companies can expand.
A spokesperson for Adani Power said the company continuously evaluates growth opportunities where it believes it can create value. Its acquisition of stressed assets is guided by a disciplined assessment of asset quality, residual value, operational potential, and strategic fit, he said. Such acquisitions abide by the transparent and competitive processes established under the IBC and applicable laws, the spokesperson added.
"Adani Power's experience in project execution, operations and maintenance, fuel sourcing, logistics management, and cost optimization enables it help unlock value and restore asset productivity. Their successful resolution has ensured revival of critical power generation assets and contributing to India’s energy security besides supporting economic activity and safeguarding employment," said the spokesperson, adding that the company “remains open to inorganic opportunities that meet its investment and return thresholds and offer the potential for value creation through operational turnaround and efficient asset utilization".
Adani Power is the most profitable company in the Ahmedabad-based conglomerate's portfolio, with a net profit of ₹12,971 crore in FY26.
Shares of Adani Power reflect its optimism, having gained nearly 40% since January. The scrip closed at ₹208.2 on Tuesday, with its market capitalization at ₹4 trillion.