New Delhi: Billionaire Gautam Adani has raised $1.38 billion (Rs 11,330 crore) through stake sale in three group companies, taking the total capital raised over four years to $9 billion as the conglomerate draws interest from a cross-section of investors.
In a statement, the ports-to-energy conglomerate said it “is committed to raising capital to fulfill its 10-year roadmap of the transformative capital management program, which was formulated in 2016 to execute the plans for various portfolio companies.”
“In the most recent instance, Adani family has raised $1.38 billion (Rs 11,330 crore) through stake sale in the three portfolio companies - Adani Enterprises Ltd, Adani Green Energy Ltd and Adani Transmission Ltd,” it said.
“This ensures higher capital availability at the group level, for growth as well as near-term commitments of both debt and equity for the portfolio companies over the next 12-18 months.” In addition, the three portfolio companies have also received board approval for primary issuances through a share sale to investors as the group continues to build on a comeback strategy to emerge from allegations of fraud levelled by a US short-seller.
Adani Enterprises Ltd, the group’s flagship firm, plans to raise Rs 12,500 crore through share sale to investors while electricity transmission company Adani Transmission another Rs 8,500 crore. Its renewable energy firm plans to raise Rs 12,300 crore.
This comes five months after Adani Enterprises was forced to abort a Rs 20,000 crore follow-on public offering (FPO) in the wake of the Hindenburg report. The offer was fully subscribed but the company returned the money to subscribers. US short-seller Hindenburg Research in January released a damning report alleging accounting fraud and stock price manipulation at Adani Group, triggering a stock market rout that had erased about $145 billion in the conglomerate’s market value at its lowest point.
Adani Group has denied all allegations by Hindenburg and is plotting a comeback strategy that includes recasting its ambitions, scrapping acquisitions, pre-paying debt to address concerns about its cash flows and borrowings, and scaling back its pace of spending on new projects.
Promoters in two tranches have sold shares since May to leading US-based global equity investment boutique GQG Partners. The latest was earlier this month where $1.38 billion was raised. “A similar stake-sale by the family in March 2023 aggregating to $1.87 billion (Rs 15,446 crore), resulted in full prepayment of margin-linked, share-backed financing and created flexibility in a rising rate environment to equitize debt capital as and when due,” the statement said.