By Dhwani Pandya
MUMBAI (Reuters) – Billionaire Gautam Adani’s flagship firm Adani Enterprise has raised $500 million via a share sale to local insurance and mutual funds firms and an existing U.S. based investor, two sources with direct knowledge said.
The share sale marks the company’s return to equity markets after it scrapped a $2.5 billion plan in February last year following a short-seller Hindenburg’s report accusing Adani Group of misusing offshore tax havens and stock manipulation. The group has denied the allegations.
The share sale launched on Wednesday was oversubscribed four times, receiving bids up to $2 billion, according to the sources, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. SBI Life Insurance along with other local insurance and mutual fund firms, as well as U.S. based GQG Partners invested in the issue, they added.
U.S. boutique investment firm GQG Partners’s $1.87 billion infusion last year in Adani group companies after the short-seller report helped restore some confidence in the conglomerate.
Adani Enterprises in May approved raising up to $2 billion through modes including a so-called Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) method used by listed Indian companies to raise funds from large institutions.
The firm originally intended to raise more funds if market conditions permitted, but due to volatile market and geopolitical situations, it decided to raise only $500 million for now and still has multiple options for fundraising in future, one of the source said.
The firm, which helms the group’s mining, airport and defense businesses, 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 on Wednesday
Last month, the firm also raised around 8 billion rupees in its first-ever retail bond sale that saw strong demand.
Adani, SBI Life Insurance and GQG Partners did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
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, and Indian mutual funds.
(Reporting by Dhwani Pandya; editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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