The Ahmedabad-based Adani Group was the latest to confirm on Tuesday that it had hired Morgan Stanley to sell its port project in Australia, acquired in 2011 for $2 billion.
The sale comes within weeks of Reliance Industries’ putting its 45 per cent stake in a shale gas joint venture in the US up for sale at a valuation of $4.5 billion.
“It’s a question of survival for many corporates.
"The debt taken by some companies to buy assets abroad had become unmanageable and they did not have any other option but to sell assets,” says Phani Sekhar, fund manager at Angel Broking.
Bankers say this year till date, the Tatas have sold their stake in Neotel in South Africa, apart from putting Tata Steel’s long products division on the block at a valuation estimated at $1.3 billion.
Bharti also sold its towers in Africa after demerging it from Zain’s operations it acquired in 2010 for $10.7 billion.
“This year is exactly the opposite of the boom witnessed in 2007-08, when Indian companies spent billions of dollars to buy companies abroad but failed to get reasonable returns on investments.
"The chickens have come home to roost as a lot of top companies are grappling with debt taken to acquire these assets,” said a banker about the spurt in sales of assets by Indian companies.
Apart from managing debt as in the case of Tata Steel and Lanco, which is selling a stake in its Australian coal mine, some companies are making the best of the good valuations fetched by their companies.
The Essar and Aditya Birla groups sold their business outsourcing units for $610 million and $260
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