Sidharath Kapur, the CEO of the newly minted airports division within the Adani Group, has resigned, Mint has learnt from three people close to the development. Kapur put in his papers last week and will leave at the end of the month, less than five months after joining the group.
Kapur is believed to be leaving for personal reasons. “Sidharath was with the Adani group for a very short period, and he was just about getting started with hiring the right people, getting the strategy in place. It’s surprising that he has to leave. The Adani Group is looking for a successor for his role,” one of the three people that Mint spoke to said.
Kapur is credited with taking GMR’s ambitions in the airport business overseas, with successful bids in the Maldives, Crete and the Philippines, and raising debt of over ₹20,000 crore as part of the expansion plan.
A spokesperson for the Adani Group declined to comment on Kapur’s exit. Mint could not reach Kapur for his comments.
In February, Adani Enterprises won the rights to run six airports where the government wanted to privatise operations. These were the Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram, Guwahati and Mangaluru airports, beating rival bidders by a steep margin. Not only had billionaire Gautam Adani’s group created a new business division, overnight the group had won the rights to become India’s largest airport operator outside government control. Kapur, who had spent close to a decade heading the GMR group’s airports division, was roped in to create the business from scratch for the Adanis.
{{/usCountry}}In February, Adani Enterprises won the rights to run six airports where the government wanted to privatise operations. These were the Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram, Guwahati and Mangaluru airports, beating rival bidders by a steep margin. Not only had billionaire Gautam Adani’s group created a new business division, overnight the group had won the rights to become India’s largest airport operator outside government control. Kapur, who had spent close to a decade heading the GMR group’s airports division, was roped in to create the business from scratch for the Adanis.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier this month, Adani Enterprises said it would make an upfront investment of ₹3,600 crore in the three airports where it has received the Union Cabinet’s nod to lease them to the company, namely the Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Mangaluru airports. The company expects to take over operations of the first three airports by April 2020 and believes the airports business will entail an investment of at least ₹10,000 crore.