Adani Enterprises’ $1.3 billion stake sale expected to start early next week: Report

(Bloomberg) -- Billionaire Gautam Adani’s flagship firm plans to roll out its share sale as early as next week, according to people familiar, marking its return to public equity markets after a scathing short-seller report in 2023 derailed a previous plan.

Adani Enterprises Ltd. is looking to raise about $1.3 billion through a so-called qualified institutional placement and is expected to start the process as early as the week starting Oct. 7, said the people aware of the discussions, who asked not to be identified as the information is not public yet.

The terms of the sale may have a greenshoe option which will be firmed up by the board likely by the end of this week, one of the people said. There’s strong interest from many domestic institutional investors in the equity issue, another person said.

Adani Enterprises got board approval in May to raise as much as 166 billion rupees ($2 billion) through various methods, including share sale to institutions.

An Adani Group representative did not offer any immediate comments. Deliberations are ongoing and details of the share sale, including size and timing, may change, the people said.

The flagship’s fundraising comes amid an investor frenzy that has made India the busiest IPO market. It’ll also mark another major milestone for the media-to-mining conglomerate that was rocked by US short-seller Hindenburg Research’s allegations of widespread corporate fraud in January 2023.

Despite the Adani Group denying these claims, the stock rout erased over $150 billion from the conglomerate’s market value at one point and forced it to scrap a $2.5 billion share sale in February last year.

Vote of Confidence

The conglomerate has since resumed its growth spree with a port acquisition in Africa, a $10 billion chip plant and buyouts of cement makers in India. A successful share sale by Adani Enterprises — the group’s incubator for new ventures — will be a big vote of investor confidence for the billionaire.

ICICI Securities Ltd., Jefferies Financial Group Inc. and SBI Capital Markets Ltd. are helping Adani Enterprises with the share sale, Bloomberg News reported in August citing people familiar with the developments.

Adani Enterprises’ shares have advanced almost 12% this year, lagging the 18.7% rise in the benchmark NSE Nifty 50, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The stock is still about 7% below the level it was at when Hindenburg report was published.

The transaction would follow Adani Energy Solutions Ltd.’s $1 billion share sale in August to institutional investors.

The group, helmed by Asia’s second-richest person, and its joint-venture partner Wilmar International Ltd. are also planning to sell 13% in consumer goods maker Adani Wilmar Ltd. to pare the founders’ stake and align with India’s shareholding regulations.

--With assistance from Baiju Kalesh.

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