Adani Ent to acquire a 50% stake in General Aeronautics.
Adani Enterprises on Friday said that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire a 50 percent stake in General Aeronautics Private Limited, which provides commercial drone-based solutions for crop protection. Adani Defence Systems and Technologies Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Billionaire Gautam Adani-led conglomerate, said that the acquisition would be completed by July 31, 2022.
Adani Defence Systems and Technologies Limited shall leverage its military drone and AI/ML capabilities and work with General Aeronautics to provide end-to-end solutions for the domestic agricultural sector.
General Aeronautics is an end-to-end Agri platform solution provider based in Bengaluru, India, and incorporated in 2016. It provides robotic drones and drone-based solutions for crop protection services, crop health, precision- farming, and yield monitoring using artificial intelligence and analytics for the agricultural sector.
Adani Defence Systems and Technologies Ltd will leverage its military drone and AI/ML capabilities and work with General Aeronautics to provide end-to-end solutions for the domestic agricultural sector, the company said in a statement. The deal value was not disclosed.
Founded in 2016 by Abhishek Burman, Kota Harinarayana, and Anutosh Moitra, Bengaluru-based General Aeronautics offers drone-based solutions for crop protection services, crop health, and farming and yield monitoring services to the agricultural sector.
Adani Defence Systems will leverage its military drone, artificial intelligence, and machine learning capabilities and work with General Aeronautics to provide end-to-end solutions for the domestic agricultural sector.
Founded in 2015, Adani Defence Systems offers drone-based solutions to defense services. Besides, it has created an ecosystem where it invests in MSMEs and incubates startups offering differentiated tech products, as per its website.
Backed by the government’s push to increase the use of drones across sectors, the space has seen a lot of activity. On Thursday, RatanTata Enterprise Limited, a subsidiary of RattanIndia Group, acquired a 60% stake in Bengaluru-based drone startup Throttle Aerospace.
General Aeronautics is a Bengaluru-based end-to-end Agri platforms solution provider that was founded in 2016. It uses artificial intelligence and data to provide robotic drones and drone-based technologies for crop protection, crop health, precision farming, and yield monitoring in the agriculture sector.
In an exchange filing, the Indian multinational conglomerate said: “The Adani Defence Systems and Technologies Limited shall leverage its military drone and AI/ ML capabilities and work with General Aeronautics to provide end-to-end solutions for the domestic agricultural sector.”
Adani Enterprises added that the indicated period to complete the acquisition is July 31, 2022. The purchase coincides with Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s invitation to foreign investors to invest in India’s drone sector.
While speaking at the Bharat Drone Mahotsav in New Delhi, he added, “In the future, I expect to see more trials with the use of drones. I’m welcoming investors from all over the country and the world once more. I’m also pleading with industry experts to make drones increasingly widely available. I’d like to encourage young people to create new drone businesses.”
According to PM Modi (for land mapping), drones are being deployed in several government projects, including SVAVITMA, according to PM Modi (for land mapping). Drones were used to generate 65 lakh property cards, which were then distributed to property owners. Drones, Modi predicted, would find use in all areas in the coming days, from defense to crisis management, farming to sports.
Adani Defence Systems and Technologies acquired Alpha Design Technologies Pvt Ltd in 2019. Adani Defence and Aerospace received a solid tier-1 capability from Alpha Design Technologies, which served as a foundation for progressing to platform capabilities.
Adani Group’s flagship firm Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL), posted a consolidated net profit attributable to owners at Rs 304.32 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2022. Its consolidated revenue grew 83.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021-22 to Rs 25,141.56 crore, compared with Rs 13,688.95 crore in the year-ago period, according to its filings with stock exchanges.
Shares of Adani Enterprises on Friday jumped 32.40 points, or 1.58 percent, to close at Rs 2,080.10 apiece on the BSE.
Gautam Adani Speaks at Davos
Speaking at the World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland on Thursday, Adani Group Chairman and founder Gautam Adani said international alliances are built on slippery foundations of self-interest.
From immunization to the military to semiconductors, India needs to take up and increase its self-reliance. “Nearly every leader I spoke with recognized, and some even stated outright, that an increasingly sophisticated weapons race is on the horizon. Defense agreements will create and re-form alliances, and many countries may emphasize defense manufacturing and acquisition as a non-negotiable part of self-reliance,” he said.
Shares of Adani Enterprises on Friday jumped 32.40 points, or 1.58 percent, to close at Rs 2,080.10 apiece on the BSE.
In a statement, Ashish Rajvanshi, CEO of Adani Defence & Aerospace, said, “The collaboration among General Aeronautics and Adani Defence & Aerospace fuses our army and civilian aims by incorporating. Adani Group’s military UAV functionality with the capabilities of General Aeronautics, thereby supplying us with a platform with far-reaching possibilities.”
The changing legal environment, PLI incentives, and the recent prohibition on drone imports will likely propel India’s drones, and the drone market will account for Rs 30,000 crore by 2026.
“I’m thrilled that Adani Defence & Aerospace is joining forces with us to help us usher in the next phase of growth in this fast-changing industry. I’m looking forward to our relationship achieving significant scale by utilizing their unmanned capabilities vision and dedication, which will enable India to become the world’s drone hub, “Abhishek Burman, CEO of General Aeronautics, stated.
General Aeronautics, founded in 2016, is an end-to-end Agri platform solutions company situated in Bengaluru, India. It uses artificial intelligence and analytics to provide robotic drones and drone-based services for crop protection, crop health, precision farming, and yield monitoring in the agriculture sector.
Drones’ cross-industry applications are practically endless, and they continue to make significant progress. It allows countries like ours to leapfrog generations of progress in infrastructure, healthcare, logistics, agriculture, and defense and tear through various process obstacles. “The potential is unlimited when integrated with next-generation imaging technologies, greater battery life, edge-based artificial intelligence, and machine learning capabilities,” Adani Defence & Aerospace Chief Executive Officer Ashish Rajvanshi said. India’s drone and drone services market will reach 30,000 crores by 2026.
