GVK Power May Buy Siemens’ 40% in Bangalore Airport

GVK Power & Infrastructure Ltd., an Indian builder of airports and power plants, is evaluating an option to purchase the 40 percent stake owned by Siemens AG in Bangalore International Airport Ltd. GVK’s shares rose.
“There are a number of issues that need to be resolved before we can buy the stake,” A. Issac George, chief financial officer of Hyderabad-based GVK Power, said by telephone today. “It is still preliminary.” A part of the stake is locked in till May 2011 and the remainder until May 2015, he said.
GVK is seeking to increase its stake to expand its airport business after it purchased 17 percent of the Bangalore operations from a unit of Larsen & Toubro Ltd. this month, taking its holdings to 29 percent. The company partly owns Mumbai International Airport Pvt. in India’s financial hub.
Shirley Burla, head of press relations at Siemens Ltd. in Mumbai, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comments.
GVK shares rose 1.4 percent to 47.40 rupees as of 11:03 a.m. in Mumbai trading, compared with a 1.7 percent increase in the benchmark Sensitive Index of the Bombay Stock Exchange. The shares have climbed 113 percent this year. GVK Power had 2.2 billion rupees ($47 million) in cash and short-term investments as of March 31, 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Last month, GVK had bought Zurich Airport’s 12 percent stake for 4.85 billion rupees, the Mint newspaper reported today without saying where it got the information.
23/12/09 Rakteem Katakey/Bloomberg

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Categories: Airports Dec 2009