Adani Enterprises (AEL), which has interests in new energy, transport and consumer businesses, has significantly expanded its capital expenditure (capex) to Rs 92,000 crore for FY25 as it prepares to be aggressive in its airport and green hydrogen businesses.
Jugeshinder ‘Robbie’ Singh, chief financial officer, AEL, said, “The total capex plan for FY24 across AEL will be approximately Rs 33,600 crore. We expect it to jump to Rs 92,000 crore next year.” This jump is driven by Rs 50,000 crore in Adani New Industries and Rs 10,000 crore in the airports business). “Everything else will be pretty much at the (current) run rate level,” Singh said in a post-earnings call.
AEL, which defines itself as an “incubator on establishing diverse new businesses”, has previously guided for a five-year capex cycle totalling $48 billion, out of which $41 billion will be for Adani New Industries and $44.3 billion for the airports business.
The capex for the company’s roads business will remain at Rs 10,000 crore for FY25, Singh added. In Adani New Industries, capex for green hydrogen and downstream will be Rs 6,000 crore each, while that for solar and wind power generation will be Rs 30,000 crore. “Module and cell line will be Rs 3,000 crore and greentech will be Rs 1,000 crore,” Singh said.
Adani New Industries focuses on generation of green hydrogen, including downstream products, green electricity generation, manufacture of electrolysers and wind turbines. Solar module sales under Adani New Industries nearly doubled to 1,882 MW during the nine months ended December compared to the same period last year.
The airports business saw the addition of 19 routes, nine airlines and five flights across the seven airports controlled by the vertical during the quarter. Passenger movement for the nine months ended December increased 23% year on year to 65.7 million.
“Phase 1 of the city side development is going on at 98 acres across five airports,” Singh added. He also said that the phase 1 of the physical progress of the Navi Mumbai Airport is as on schedule and will be operational by December 2024.