Ahmedabad, July 3 (IANS) Global institutions and India’s largest mutual funds have backed multiple Adani Group companies, marking a sharp turnaround in investor sentiment.
Adani Group has emerged as one of the biggest draws for institutional investors over the past year, attracting around Rs 40,000 crore of fresh equity into its flagship company alone while also seeing marquee global and domestic investors increase their exposure across several listed entities.
Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL) this week upsized its qualified institutional placement (QIP) to Rs 15,000 crore after receiving bids worth about Rs 38,000 crore, or 3.8 times the base issue size. The fundraising comes less than a year after the company’s Rs 25,000 crore rights issue, taking its total equity capital raised over the past year to about Rs 40,000 crore.
The latest offering attracted some of the world’s largest institutional investors, including Capital Group, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Blackstone, and Nomura. Domestic participation was equally broad-based, with HDFC Mutual Fund, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, Kotak Mutual Fund, Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund, SBI Mutual Fund and Tata Mutual Fund among the investors.
People familiar with the transaction said the order book was fully covered before the issue formally opened, with bankers describing investors as “clamouring for allocations.” The company launched the QIP with a base size of Rs 10,000 crore before increasing it to Rs 15,000 crore on the back of strong demand.
The fundraising is the latest sign of a sharp shift in investor sentiment toward the Adani Group. After a period when Adani stocks were among the least preferred by several institutional investors, they have become some of the most sought-after names among both global funds and domestic asset managers.
Over the past year, leading institutional investors have participated in fundraisings and secondary transactions across companies including Adani Power, Adani Ports & SEZ, Adani Energy Solutions and Adani Green Energy, alongside Adani Enterprises. The lineup of investors has consistently featured some of the world’s largest asset managers and nearly every major domestic mutual fund, reflecting growing conviction in the group’s long-term investment pipeline.
The latest demand also comes despite a US federal judge pausing the formal dismissal of criminal charges against the Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani and directing the Department of Justice to justify its decision to withdraw the case. The strong institutional participation suggests investors have remained focused on the group’s operating businesses, capital allocation, and growth prospects.
Adani Enterprises, the group’s flagship incubator, is expanding businesses spanning airports, AI and data centres, solar and wind equipment manufacturing, roads, PVC, metals and mining. A day before the QIP, the company announced an $11.5 billion investment with IHC to establish India’s largest aluminium manufacturing project, marking the biggest foreign direct investment announced in India’s metals and mining sector.
–IANS
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