Billionaire Gautam Adani’s flagship Adani Enterprises Ltd could launch its maiden public offer of non-convertible debentures (NCD) this month, maybe as early as next week, to raise Rs 600 crore from the public, people familiar with the matter said.
Adani Enterprises’ plan to raise equity capital of $1.5-2 billion is also at an advanced stage, and a qualified institutional placement (QIP) offering is likely to be launched in the first half of September, the people cited above said, requesting anonymity.
An email sent to the spokesperson for the Adani group did not elicit a response till the time of publication.
“The public NCD offer is expected to be launched mid-next week, although the exact dates have not yet been finalised. This will be the first public offer of NCDs by any Adani group company and is part of the company’s strategy to diversify its funding sources,” one of the people cited above said.
On July 25, Adani Enterprises filed a draft prospectus with stock exchanges for raising Rs 600 crore through a public NCD offer. The issue includes a base amount of Rs 300 crore, with the option to raise an additional Rs 300 crore if needed.
The funds to be raised from the NCD offering will be used for repayment, in full or in part, of the existing loans availed by the company.
QIP plans
On the QIP front, the company is in discussions with several institutional investors and is seeing good demand following the successful $1 billion share sale of Adani Energy Solutions, which saw six times the demand on July 30.
The Adani Energy QIP saw interest from global investors such as Rajiv Jain’s GQG Partners and Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund ADIA and International Holding Co., Moneycontrol reported.
Domestic mutual funds bid for shares worth as much as $325 million (over Rs 2,700 crore) with SBI MF, HDFC MF, Tata MF, Bandhan, Axis and other funds putting in bids. SBI MF bid for shares worth Rs 800 crore, Moneycontrol reported.
“Adani Enterprises is looking at a launch timeline of the first half of September for the QIP offering, depending on market conditions and demand from investors,” said one of the persons cited.
The funds are planned to be used for capex as well as for reducing the debt of the company, added the people quoted.
As of June 30, Adani Enterprises had a net debt of Rs 42,753 crore.
Adani Enterprises board on May 28 had approved a fundraising plan of Rs 16,600 crore through a QIP.
Hindenburg’s latest salvo
These fundraising plans come amid new allegations against the Adani group by short seller Hindenburg, claiming links between the Adani group and Sebi chief Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband, Dhaval Buch.
Hindenburg Research on August 10 said whistleblower documents have shown SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband had a stake in what it described as “obscure offshore entities” linked to the Adani group.
These funds, based in Bermuda and Mauritius, were allegedly controlled by Vinod Adani, the elder brother of Gautam Adani, and were purportedly used to manipulate funds and inflate stock prices, the report claimed.
Addressing the allegations, the Buchs clarified that their 2015 investment in offshore entities, cited in Hindenburg’s August 10 report, happened while they were private citizens in Singapore, two years before Madhabi Puri Buch’s appointment as a SEBI director. They said the investment decision was influenced by Anil Ahuja, a childhood friend of Dhaval and a veteran of Citibank, J.P. Morgan, and 3i Group Plc. They further clarified that the investment was redeemed in 2018 when Ahuja left the fund and never involved Adani group securities.
Adani also issued a statement refuting the allegations.
In its statement the Adani group called the Hindenburg report “A Red Herring”, adding that the latest allegations by Hindenburg are malicious, mischievous and manipulative selections of publicly available information to arrive at pre-determined conclusions for personal profiteering with wanton disregard for facts and the law.
“We completely reject these allegations against the Adani Group, which are a recycling of discredited claims that have been thoroughly investigated, proven to be baseless and already dismissed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in March 2023,” the statement said.
Since the latest Hindenburg allegations, shares of Adani Enterprises have lost over four percent in value as of trading at 1 PM on August 14 on the BSE.
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