Adani steps into Ambani's domain

Billionaire Gautam Adani's ports-to-energy conglomerate has floated a new subsidiary that will set up refineries, petrochemical complexes and hydrogen plants - businesses that will directly compete with richest Indian Mukesh Ambani's company.

Adani Enterprises in stock exchange filing said it has incorporated Adani Petrochemicals Ltd (APL) as a wholly-owned subsidiary to 'carry on business of setting up refineries, petrochemicals complexes, specialty chemicals units, hydrogen and related chemical plants and other such similar units.' The conglomerate has operations spanning sea ports to airports to electricity generation and transmission, renewable energy, mining, natural gas, food processing, defence and infrastructure. And now it is foraying into petrochemicals and other related areas, which will directly compete with Ambani's Reliance. Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is the largest producer of petrochemicals in the country and amongst the top-10 in the world. It also owns and operates the world's largest oil refining complex. In June, Ambani announced a mega Rs 75,000 crore investment in setting up four 'giga factories' to make solar modules, hydrogen, fuel cells and to build a battery grid to store electricity over the next three years. The solar modules will enable 100 gigawatts of solar energy by 2030. Adani, who earlier this year took his spot behind Ambani as Asia's second-richest man, has previously announced plans to become world's largest renewable energy producer by 2030. He has got France's TotalEnergies SE as partner in Adani Green Energy Ltd - the group's renewable arm.

The French giant has also invested directly in some of the projects in the firm's 25 gigawatts solar-energy portfolio. The Adani Group had in January 2019 signed an initial pact with German chemical giant BASF for investing about 2 billion euros in a chemical factory at Mundra in Gujarat.

This was expanded in October that year by involving Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) of UAE and Borealis AG. The four partners completed a joint feasibility study for a $4 billion chemical complex in Mundra which was to comprise a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant, a polypropylene (PP) production and an acrylics value chain complex, according to a BASF press statement of November 5, 2020. This project was, however, put on hold due to Covid-19 pandemic. Adani Enterprises in April this year incorporated a wholly-owned arm 'Mundra Petrochem Ltd' (MPL) with the aim to "set up various feedstocks (coal, petcoke, coke, limestone, salts, sand, tar, oil, LPG, LNG, Ethane, LPG, green fuels, etc) based refinery, petrochemical and chemical plants in a phased manner in India and to undertake all such activities associated with land acquisition, design and engineering, procurement and other related undertakings."

It isn't clear if MPL was incorporated as a follow up of the 2019 pact with BASF and others, and if the new subsidiary will set up plants at sites other than Mundra. Adani Petrochemicals Ltd is one of the numerous subsidiaries Adani group has incorporated since the beginning of this fiscal, with interests ranging from road construction to power transmission and wind turbine manufacturing. The conglomerate had ventured into cement business in June with its new subsidiary Adani Cement. Headquartered in Ahmedabad, Adani Group is one of India's largest integrated infrastructure conglomerates with interests in resources (coal mining and trading), logistics (ports, logistics, shipping, rail and airports), energy (renewable and thermal power generation, transmission and distribution, and city gas distribution), agro (commodities, edible oil, food products, cold storage and grain silos), real estate, public transport infrastructure, consumer finance and defence sectors. It has as many as six listed entities.