Three Adani group companies - Adani Enterprises, Adani Green Energy and Adani Transmission - will be raising about $4 billion through qualified institutional placements, as the group readies to implement its delayed expansion plans and put them on track.
On Thursday, the board of Adani Green Energy approved raising up to ₹12,300 crore (around $1.5 billion) through a qualified institutional placement (QIP) of shares. In May, the boards of Adani Enterprises and Adani Transmission had taken approval to raise ₹21,000 crore ($2.5 billion) through QIPs.
In the meantime, promoter entities of the Adani Group have recently sold chunks of stakes in Adani Enterprises, Adani Transmission, and Adani Green Energy to raise over ₹11,000 crore (around $1.3 billion). Sources indicated that this fundraising by the promoters was separate from the funds that the companies intended to raise, though it can also be used to pay down short-term maturing debt. It is intended to provide more financial flexibility to the group.
The group has a sizeable debt of $29 billion at the gross level. Adani Green alone has a gross debt close to $6 billion.
On revival path
The fundraising by individual companies is part of the agenda of the Adani group to resume its expansion plans that were put on hold following explosive allegations made in January by short-seller Hindenburg Research of price manipulation of stock prices, round-tripping by offshore entities, and corporate governance lapses.
In its FY23 annual report Adani Enterprises had said that it was aiming to complete many projects that were under construction, ahead of schedule to start earning revenues from them. It has a subsidiary, Adani New Industries which is developing a platform to produce low-cost renewable energy and products across the value chain through an integrated supply chain mechanism. Set up in Mundra SEZ, it has a manufacturing capacity of 4 GW. It is also putting up data centres in a joint venture with EdgeConnex, while expanding and modernising its portfolio of airports. In the FY23 earnings call the company had pegged its FY24 capex at $3.8 billion.
Last month, the group had said that it aimed to push its operating profit 20-25 per cent in the next 2-3 years with most of the growth coming from energy utility, transport, and logistics portfolios. It forecast EBITDA from its core infrastructure business to reach Rs 80,000 crore in that time from Rs 51,754 crore in FY23.