Gautam Adani, who heads the ports-to-power conglomerate Adani group, is planning to sell stake worth around $450 million in one of its subsidiary, Ambuja Cement, a Financial Times report said on March 10.
The newspaper said it learnt from three company sources, who are privy to the development, that Adani on March 9 issued a formal request to global lenders for selling four to five percent stake in the cement business.
Another person linked to the Adani group confirmed to FT about the plan to sell stake in Ambuja Cement, but did not share details. Adani, notably, owns 63 percent stake in Ambuja Cement -- a known cement player in the Indian market, which it had acquired last year in a $10.5 billion deal.
CNBC-TV18 has reached out to the Adani group for its reaction to the report. The company's spokesperson was yet to respond at the time of filing this report.
The shares of Ambuja Cement closed at around Rs 378 apiece at the market on March 10, which was 1.6 percent lower as against the previous close. At the current market price, a five-percent stake in the company would be worth approximately $465 million.
The move to sell the stake, as claimed in the FT report, is likely to be aimed at lowering the group's overall net debt that stands at around $24 billion, and restore confidence among investors following the rout suffered in the stock market last month.
The listed entities of Adani cumulatively shed over $100 billion, after the US-based short seller Hindenburg Research released a report on January 24, alleging accountancy fraud and stock manipulation. Adani has denied all the allegations, and has accused Hindenburg of committing a "calculated securities fraud".
After weeks of losses, Adani stocks marked a recovery last week, after the US-based global assets management firm GQG Partners announced a cumulative investment of Rs 15,446 crore in four entities: Adani Enterprises, Adani Green Energy, Adani Ports and Adani Transmission.
The shares further shot up this week after Adani group on March 7 said it has has prepaid the Rs 7,374-crore (more than $900 million) share-backed financing made by various international and domestic financial institutions, about two years ahead of its latest maturity date. The embattled conglomerate pledged to prepay all remaining loans by the end of March.
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