Equity investors buy stake in Indian terminal

Equity investors buy stake in Indian terminal Global Infrastructure Partners, a private equity firm focused on global infrastructure asset investments, said Friday it has agreed to acquire, through its International Port Holdings portfolio company, a 25 percent stake in Chennai Container Terminal Pvt. Ltd., a container terminal on the Southeast Coast of India operated by DP World.
   GIP said the terminal serves the “strategically important trade route between Europe and the Far East.” CCT is the busiest container terminal on India’s East Coast and the second-largest private container terminal in India overall by traffic volume.
   “Since its opening in 2001, CCT’s volume has grown at a compounded annual rate of 18.7 percent, making it the second-fastest growing container terminal in the country,” GIP said in a statement.
   “We are delighted that one of our first emerging market investments is in such a high growth, high quality asset within India’s manufacturing hub,” said Adebayo Ogunlesi, chairman and managing partner of Global Infrastructure Management LLC. “CCT provides a significant opportunity to gain a foothold in one of the most promising areas in the port sector, and the facility itself offers tremendous potential for further development.”
   The transaction is conditional on obtaining regulatory clearance from the government of India and approval from the Chennai Port Trust. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.