The Hindu Business Line : ABG Shipyard to raise $200 m for expansion

On the cards
Plans to procure another 15 acres near Vipul Shipyard.
To build another shipyard in Surat, which will be capable of building very large sized vessels.

Mamuni Das

New Delhi, Dec 14

ABG Shipyard plans to raise about $200 million through private placement. The funds would be used for expansion of its existing shipyard at Surat and new shipyard on the sea front, which will be capable of building “very large sized and all types of vessels”, Mr Dhananjay Datar, CFO, ABG Shipyard, told Business Line.

Land acquisition

ABG Shipyard, which has acquired Vipul Shipyard located adjacent to the company’s existing shipyard at Magdalla Port, in Surat, now plans to expand the shipyard by procuring another 15 acres near Vipul Shipyard. With the acquisition of Vipul Shipyard, the company was able to increase its shipbuilding capacity from the present 32 to 40 vessels.

ENGineering WORKSHOP

“By procuring additional land near Vipul Shipyard, the shipyard size would increase to 22-23 acres and we would be shifting our engineering workshop to the new location. With this, we would be able to utilise the available land in a much better manner for shipbuilding purpose,” Mr Datar said.

Additionally, ABG plans to build another shipyard in Surat, which will be capable of building very large sized vessels, “on the sea front, on the other side of river”. “We had the option of building a shipyard on the east coast, but then our investments for the new shipyard would have been much larger,” Mr Datar said.

PROMOTERS’ INVESTMENT

After raising $200 million from the qualified institutional investors, there would be a reduction in promoter group stake (from the current level of about 57 per cent). However, for the proposed expansion, the promoter group would also be infusing about Rs 300 crore and up their stake, Mr Datar said.

ABG Shipyard had bagged an order for constructing 12 Handysize bulk carriers of 35,000 deadweight tonnage each from German shipping firm BH Vogemann GmbH & Co KG for about $360 million (Rs 1,439 crore). This order took the company’s aggregate order book to Rs 7,121 crore.

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