Adani Enterprises Limited, the flagship firm of billionaire Gautam Adani, is in talks with a bunch of institutional investors, including Gulf-based sovereign wealth funds such as Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Qatar Investment Authority, as well as investors such as Rajiv Jain’s GQG, for a $2-billion qualified institutional placement (QIP), people aware of the matter told Moneycontrol.The proposed institutional share sale is likely to be launched before the end of this month, the sources added. “Adani Enterprises is in talks with a dozen institutional investors, including ADIA, QIA and GQG, which have backed Adani group companies in the recent past. The QIP will be launched once they have firm commitments from these institutional investors,” said one of the people cited above.An email sent to Adani group did not elicit a response till the time of publication. ADIA declined to comment, while emails sent to GQG and QIA went unanswered.Funds to be raised from the proposed QIP are planned to be used for capital expenditure as well as to repay some of the debt of the company and its subsidiaries.Adani Enterprises, which acts as an incubator for many of the group’s new businesses, houses the group’s airports, mining, infrastructure, data centres and green hydrogen businesses.On May 28, the company’s board had approved plans to raise up to ₹16,600 crore through a QIP.The Adani Enterprises QIP follows a similar institutional share sale in Adani Energy Solutions Limited at the end of July. Adani Energy Solutions is the transmission and electricity distribution business of the Adani group.Adani Energy Solutions raised around $1 billion through its QIP, which was subscribed almost six times.Investors who participated in Adani Energy Solutions QIP included foreign ones such as GQG, Blackrock, Nomura, ADIA, QIA and a bunch of domestic mutual funds such as SBI MF, HDFC MF and Tata MF, Moneycontrol reported on July 30.Last month, Adani Enterprises made its maiden foray into the retail NCD market raising ₹800 crore from retail investors through debt instruments.The NCDs, with tenors ranging from two to five years, offered an effective annual yield of 9.25% to 9.90% and were fully subscribed on the first day.Moneycontrol reported on September 5 that the Adani Group plans to raise between ₹30,000 crore and ₹40,000 crore from retail investors by way of NCDs over the next 3-4 years to diversify sources of funds and mitigate risks.Adani Enterprises has seen its debt increase in FY24. According to its latest investor presentation, long-term borrowings rose from ₹32,590 crore in FY23 to ₹43,718 crore in FY24, while short-term borrowings increased from ₹4,244 crore to ₹4,897 crore.Total debt grew from ₹38,320 crore in FY23 to ₹50,124 crore in FY24. The company’s cash and cash equivalents, including cash, bank balances, and current investments, improved from ₹5,539 crore to ₹8,523 crore.Adani Enterprises’ net external debt stood at ₹29,511 crore in FY24, up from ₹22,237 crore in FY23, reflecting increased leverage along with improved liquidity.
