Adani Group's Defence Systems Firm To Acquire Air Works For Rs 400 Crore

Adani Defence Systems & Technologies (ADSTL) has signed definitive agreements to acquire Air Works in a Rs 400 crore deal.

The company said on Tuesday that Air Works was the country's biggest and highly-diversified independent maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) with the largest pan-India network presence across 27 cities.

Air Works had developed extensive operational capabilities within the country for key defence and aerospace platforms, the company said.

From the first P-8I aircraft Phase 32 checks to Phase 48 checks and MRO on the landing gear of the Indian Air Force's 737 VVIP aircraft, Air Works undertakes base maintenance for Air Transportation Rack (ATR) 42/72, A320 and B737 fleet of aircraft from its EASA and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)-certified facilities at Mumbai, Delhi, Hosur and Kochi.

Adani Defence & Aerospace Chief Executive Officer Ashish Rajvanshi said, "given India's growth trajectory and the government's focus to network the nation through a massive mesh of air connectivity, it is inevitable that the primary growth of India's airline and airport sector lies ahead of it. Therefore, the maintenance, repair, and overhaul sector has a crucial role to play in both, the defence and civilian aerospace sector."

Air Works Group MD & CEO D Anand Bhaskar said, "India has the potential to become the MRO hub for the region across defence and civil aircraft. It is a wonderful opportunity for Air Works and its employees to be subsumed under Adani Defence & Aerospace platform. The government's policy measures and initiatives including the convergence of civil and defence MRO would create economies of scale and huge employment opportunities."

Ashish Rajvanshi also said, "add to this the ongoing modernisation programme to make India a large market for defence aircraft, and what emerges is one of the most exciting, comprehensive, at scale and digital MRO services within the boundaries of the nation."

Adani Defence & Aerospace is the defence manufacturing arm of the Adani Group. The company said it had been built on the Group's core tenet of 'nation building' with a vision of playing an instrumental role in helping transform India into a destination for world-class high-tech defence manufacturing, aligned to the "AtmaNirbhar Bharat" initiative.