No pressure in stake sale to Adani: GVK

Hyderabad: Business conglomerate GVK Group on Wednesday categorically said there was no "extraneous pressure" from anyone to sell its stake in Mumbai airport as alleged by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

The company's comments came a day after Gandhi alleged in Lok Sabha that "Mumbai airport, was taken away from GVK using agencies such as the CBI and the ED, and was given to Adani by the Government of India."

"GVK reiterates that the decision to sell its stakes in Mumbai Airport to Adani, was taken by the management and there was absolutely no question of any extraneous pressure being exerted on us," GVK Group spokesperson said.

Adani Group, which is currently in the eye of a storm over the recent report by short-seller Hindenburg Research related to its company's business dealings, took over the management of the Mumbai airport from GVK Group in July 2021.

While explaining the circumstances that led to the sale of the airport, GVK Group Vice Chairman Sanjay Reddy told a TV channel that it was looking to raise funds for the airport business. Reddy said that at that time, Adani Group founder-chairman Gautam Adani approached him saying he had a lot of interest in the airport and whether GVK Group was willing to do a transaction with him.

"He (Adani) said that he will assure that we will conclude the entire transaction in one month which was very important for us. So, from that perspective, whatever we did was in the interest of the company and the lenders who we had to repay and therefore, we had to close the transaction with Adani because we did not see any light of day with the other investors," Reddy said.