(Reuters) -Adani Enterprises on Wednesday launched a share sale to institutional investors to raise up to 166 billion rupees ($1.98 billion), as billionaire Gautam Adani’s flagship firm seeks to shore up capital to fund expenses and repay debt.
The share sale marks the company’s return to equity fund-raising after it scrapped a $2.5 billion plan in February last year in the wake of a short seller report accusing the Adani group of misuse of offshore tax havens and stock manipulation. The group has denied the allegations.
The floor price of the share sale, a so-called Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) used by listed Indian companies to raise funds from large institutions, is set at 3,117.475 rupees per share, a 1.2% discount to Wednesday’s closing price.
Adani Enterprises had approved the fundraise in May.
This will be the second share sale by an Adani group company this year after its power transmission unit raised $1 billion in July with investments from sovereign wealth funds from the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, as well as Indian mutual funds.
Adani Enterprises plans to use proceeds of the share sale to fund new energy projects, set up a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant and to repay debt at its airport unit, according to an exchange notice.
Moneycontrol had reported that Adani Enterprises was in talks with Gulf funds including Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Qatar Investment Authority, as well as GQG Partners, for the share sale.
Adani did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
Jefferies India, ICICI Securities and SBI Capital Markets are the bankers to the issue.
Last month, the firm also raised around 8 billion rupees in its first-ever retail bond sale that saw strong demand.
(Reporting by Varun Hebbalalu and Nishit Navin in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)
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