Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd, has dismissed the claims made by Snowman’s promoters on the deal between the two companies, that was put on ice. The deal, originally announced in December last year revolved around APSEZ acquiring a 26 per cent stake in Snowman Logistics in March through a mandatory open offer to public shareholders.
“ALL (Adani Logistics Ltd) has received a letter issued by Gateway Distriparks Ltd in relation to a purported repudiation of the share purchase agreement and ALL has duly responded to the same. ALL has categorically denied the correctness and basis of the statements, assertions and claims being made by Gateway Distriparks Ltd.”
~Adani, said in a regulatory filing
This was notified following an 11 May announcement by Snowman’s promoter, Gateway Distriparks Ltd that the deal to sell promoter stake to Adani has been called off as “the condition for completion of transaction by 31 March 2020 was not met by the Acquirer despite without prejudiced good faith attempts to resolve the matter, and the Agreement is not in force due to repudiation thereof by the Acquirer.”
ALL, a unit of Adani Ports,was supposed to purchase a 40.25% promoter stake in Snowman, along with an open offer to take another 26% from public shareholders. Adani was to pay INR 296 crore for the promoter share and another INR 191 crore for the public shareholding.
On 6th May, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) notified the possibility of either letting go of the deal or re-negotiating the price to buy a 40.25 per cent stake in Snowman Logistics Ltd for INR 296 crore.
The deal was originally announced in December last year following which APSEZ acquired a 26 per cent stake in the cold chain company in March through a mandatory open offer to public shareholders.
The group had been pondering over and reanalysing the industry situation; wondering if the cold chain business made sense in the current environment. In the event the business seemed feasible, Mr Karan Adani said that they would go ahead at re-negotiating on the price.
However, if the deal did not make sense,it would be certain that APSEZ will not go ahead with it.
“We have acquired a 26 per cent stake from the market as part of open offer and we have kept on hold the stake of 40.25 per cent that we have to buy from the promoters,”, shared Mr Adani.
APSEZ acquired the stake from Snowman Logistics’ parent company Gateway Distriparks at INR 44 per share.
The acquisition took place through APSEZ’s wholly-owned subsidiary Adani Logistics.Snowman Logistics runs integrated cold chain logistics and provides warehousing, distribution and value-added services. It operates 31 temperature-controlled warehouses at 15 locations, with 1.04 lakh pallets warehousing capacity and 293 refrigerated vehicles (reefers).
Adani Logistics, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Adani Ports, purchased a major stake for INR 296 crore in Snowman Logistics Ltd, thus making a formal entry into the world of cold chain logistics.
