New Delhi: Billionaire Gautam Adani's embattled group clutched to a Rs 3,260 cr (Rs.400-mn) investment by Abu Dhabi's International Holding Co. in its flagship Company's share sale to restore optimism in the company that witnessed about Rs.70-billion rout in value after a tiny New York short seller came out with a damning report.
The gap between Gautam Adani and rival Mukesh Ambani, whom he overtook in April of last year, has shrunk to just Rs. 4 billion. Adani was the third richest man in the world until a day before Hindenburg Research released its report on January 24 that raised concerns about its debt levels and alleged stock manipulation, accounting fraud, and use of tax havens.
In an effort to boost trust in the corporate empire, his group released a 413-page response to the Hindenburg report late on Sunday night. However, it was not well received; on Monday, key dollar bonds hit new lows and the stock values of the majority of group companies continued to decline.
A "fraud" cannot be obscured by nationalism or a bloated response that omitted major allegations, according to the US short seller, who rejected claims that its report on Adani Group's wrongdoing was a "planned attack" on India.
On January 24, Hindenburg published the research, the same day that investors could purchase shares in Adani Enterprise Ltd.'s follow-on share offering worth Rs. 20,000 crore. According to statistics accessible on BSE, only 3% of the shares on offer had been subscribed as of Monday evening, despite the fact that anchor investors had invested about Rs. 6,000 crore in the FPO on that day.
The offer expires on January 31 and the retail investor segment, which makes up the majority of the FPO, has only received about 4% of the total subscriptions.
IHC said that it will contribute around $400 million to Adani Enterprises' follow-on share sale and affirmed its confidence in the conglomerate's fundamentals despite the decline in share value. According to the company's CEO Syed Basar Shueb, "we see a great potential for growth from a long-term perspective and added value to our shareholders."