Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd has scrapped a deal to acquire Gateway Distriparks Ltd’s entire shareholding in Snowman Logistics Ltd, a cold-chain logistics services provider.
The development comes a month after VCCircle reported that Adani Ports was looking to renegotiate certain aspects of the deal to acquire a controlling stake in Bengaluru-based Snowman.
In a stock-exchange filing, Gateway said Adani Ports hadn’t met the condition necessary for completing the acquisition by the March 31 deadline despite the company showing “good faith” to resolve the matter.
“The agreement is not in force due to repudiation thereof by the acquirer,” Gateway said. It didn’t elaborate.
Shares of Adani Ports were trading 1.5% up at Rs 289.35 apiece on Monday morning. Gateway’s stock was trading 0.57% down at Rs 86.95 while Snowman Logistics shares were trading 2.2% down at Rs 28.95 apiece.
The deal was announced in December last year, with Adani saying that the acquisition would help it expand its own cold-chain logistics and warehousing business. As part of the process, Adani Ports said it would first acquire a 40.25% stake in Snowman from Gateway Distriparks for about Rs 296 crore.
It would then make an open offer to Snowman’s public shareholders to buy as much as 26% more for up to Rs 191 crore. Other investors in Snowman include Washington-based International Finance Corporation and Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation.
However, it is not clear if these investors and others sold their stake as part of the open offer announced by Adani.
Snowman was set up in 1993 and made a strong debut on stock markets in 2014. Its shares touched their peak in 2015, but then fell in subsequent years.
Adani Ports is part of the conglomerate led by billionaire Gautam Adani. It is the largest port operator in India and runs 10 ports and terminals in India. The company was acquiring Snowman through unit Adani Logistics Ltd.
