GMR Airports to buy Fraport’s 10% to increase stake in Delhi airport

GMR Airports Infrastructure Ltd plans to increase its stake in Delhi International Airport Ltd, India’s largest, to 74% by acquiring an additional 10% from Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide for around $126 million.

The transaction, subject to the approval of the Airports Authority of India and shareholders, is expected to be concluded within 180 days of executing the share-purchase agreement, the company informed the stock exchanges after the close of market hours on Monday. State-run AAI owns 26% of the paid-up capital of Delhi airport.

The proposed stake sale by Fraport meets Sebi’s requisite related-party transaction norms, GMR Airports said in the statement.

In January 2006, the GMR group-led consortium was awarded the concession to operate, manage and develop the Indira Gandhi International Airport of Delhi following an international competitive bidding process. The initial term of the concession period is 30 years, extendable by another 30 years.

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The consortium of GMR Group (54%), Malaysia Airports (Naiga) Sdn Bhd (10%) and Fraport AG Frankfurt Services Worldwide (10%) signed the operations, management and development agreement on 4 April 2006 with the AAI (26%).

In 2015, GMR group increased its stake in Delhi airport to 64% by acquiring 10% equity for around $79 million from Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad, which sold the minority stake as it did not give it any “influence” in the venture.

Delhi airport is India’s largest and busiest, managing about 20% of the country’s domestic and international traffic. In FY24, it handled 73.7 million passengers, up 12.8% from the previous financial year. Delhi airport's three terminals have an annual capacity of around 104 million passengers.

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“The acquisition of additional stake in DIAL is in line with our objective of consolidating our presence in core assets of the Group and signifies the importance of Delhi airport in the overall Group portfolio,” said Kiran Kumar Grandhi, corporate chairman of GMR Group, in the statement.

Fraport is a German transport company that operates the airport in Frankfurt am Main and holds interests in the operation of several other airports around the world. It also offers ground-handling services.

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