(Bloomberg) — At least two of India’s biggest business families have participated in a $2.5 billion stake sale in Adani Enterprises Ltd., according to people familiar with the matter, in a sign of solidarity with Gautam Adani as the tycoon battles accusations of short selling. sent his empire declining in value.
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Tycoons Sajjan Jindal and Sunil Mittal subscribed to the follow-on offer in a last-minute push that helped Adani’s flagship firm complete the sale on Tuesday, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information was not public.
The investments come from their personal funds and do not include listed businesses such as JSW Steel Ltd and Bharti Airtel Ltd, the people said. Jindal has invested about $30 million, according to a person familiar with the matter. It is not clear how much Mittal bought it for.
Representatives of Jindal’s JSW and Mittal’s Bharti declined to comment on the founders’ potential investment in Adani’s stake sale. Adani Group representatives did not immediately respond. Indian newspaper Business Standard reported the participation of Jindal and Mittal.
The offer was India’s largest follow-on share sale, and was fully subscribed on the last day due to increased demand from institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals. Interest from retail investors – who billionaire Adani was hoping to attract to diversify the firm’s investor base – was notably weak.
The short-seller attack shows the risk of going global for the Adani empire
With the participation of some of India’s biggest corporate names, some potentially rival business interests, the Hindenburg probe allegations against Adani seem somewhat domestic given the threat to the country’s economy at large.
Invasion of India
Hindenburg alleged that the Adani group used a web of firms in tax havens to inflate revenues and stock prices. The Adani Group labeled the short-seller allegations as “an attack on India, freedom, integrity and quality of Indian institutions, and India’s growth story and ambitions”.
The port-to-power group, which has been on a frantic expansion and diversification spree, has lost nearly $70 billion in market value since Hindenburg published the report last week. The sell-off pushed Adani Enterprises stock below the floor price of the follow-on offer. The share sale was underpinned by current Adani shareholder Abu Dhabi’s International Holding Company, which invested $400 million in the offering.
The Adani group has threatened legal action over the Hindenburg report, calling it “bogus” and “a calculated securities fraud” in a 413-page rebuttal on Sunday, which the short seller said ignored all its main allegations and was “clouded by nationalism”. “
— With the help of Saikat Das.
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