It takes decades for any business group to become a country’s largest airport operator. Ask the GMR Group, who entered the airports space in the early 2000s and took the proverbial slow and steady path to become the country’s largest airport operator. On the other hand, it took just two years for Gautam Adani to surpass them and become India’s largest private airport operator. That too during the raging days of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the aviation sector across the world went through the largest turbulence it ever saw.

When other airport operators faced severe fund crunches and devastating losses, the Adani Group was flying high, taking over eight airports, including the upcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport, all in just two years.

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Sample this. GVK, with a 50.5 percent stake, was successfully managing the Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd (MIAL), the second busiest in the country, since 2011. South African investor Bidvest had a 13.5 percent stake in MIAL. GVK had a RoFR (right of first refusal) too on their stake.

In mid-2019, Adani signed an agreement with Bidvest to acquire its stake in MIAL, ignoring GVK’s RoFR. GVK moved the court on this, and in October 2019, signed a deal with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board to bring in funds to buy out Bidvest.

Pretty normal business strategy, right? But Modi and Adani had other ideas.

In June 2020, in a surprise move, the CBI filed an FIR alleging fraud by promoters of the GVK group. CBI’s charge sheet alleged that the promoters had swindled Rs.700 crore between 2012-2018, enriching themselves with inflated contracts and paying several people who were not employees of MIAL.

GVK’s immediate reaction was one of surprise. “MIAL would have provided every assistance, had the agency sought an explanation on any document even if a preliminary enquiry had been initiated. MIAL is a transparent and responsible corporate entity which is committed to cooperate with the agency in its investigation to arrive at the truth,” it said.

The FIR but was just the beginning. In July, the CBI raided several premises of the GVK group, mounting more pressure on the group, which by the next month relented and agreed to sell its entire 50.5 percent stake in MIAL to Adani, who went on to buy another 23.5 percent from the other investors, including Bidvest. Khel khatam!

And that is how Adani became India’s numero uno private airport operator.

case study : Sukla Sen