GMR Group secures Rs 6.3k cr from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority

Hyderabad-based GMR Group on Wednesday said it has entered into an agreement with Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), the UAE's largest sovereign wealth fund, for an investment of Rs 6,300 crore in the form of structured debt instruments.

ADIA has invested in structured debt instruments of a unit of GMR Enterprises (GEPL), the holding company of GMR Group. GMR Enterprises owns a roughly 25% stake in GMR Airports.

Upon completion of the deal, GMR Group announced its intention to utilize the funds for the refinancing of all outstanding external debt of GMR Enterprise Private Limited (GEPL), the parent company of GMR Airports Limited (GAL), previously known as GMR Airports Infrastructure Limited.

"Over recent years, we have successfully reduced a significant quantum of corporate debt. We have also demerged GMR Power and Urban Infra Limited from GMR Airports Infrastructure Limited, and merged GMR Airports Limited with GMR Airports Infrastructure Limited to form GMR Airports Limited, a pure play, publicly listed airport platform. This investment from ADIA will facilitate the repayment of all external debt at GEPL, strengthening our ability to support the continued growth of GAL,” said Kiran Grandhi, Corporate Chairman, GMR Group.

“India’s aviation sector has strong growth prospects, backed by the positive longterm fundamentals of the Indian economy, while GMR Group is one of the country’s leading airport operators. This investment aligns with our approach of backing entities which are developing world class transport assets that benefit from demographic growth and increased economic connectivity,” said Khadem AlRemeithi, Executive Director of the Infrastructure Department at ADIA.

GMR Enterprises' total debt had increased nearly 4% year-on-year to 44.77 billion rupees ($532.5 million), according to its latest annual report.