Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL), the flagship company of the Gautam Adani group, on Tuesday received board approval to mobilise up to ₹16,600 crore ($2 billion).
It came only a day after another listed entity from the conglomerate-Adani Energy Solutions (AESL) also got its board approval to raise up to ₹12,500 crore.
Reports suggest that several other Adani group companies are drawing up plans to raise money as the group shrugs off the gloom that was cast over its future after the meltdown in January last year sparked by a raft of allegations of financial irregularities by US shortseller Hindenburg.
The fundraising may happen in one or more tranches, Adani Enterprises said in a stock exchange filing.
Both the companies will need other approvals including from shareholders.
While Adani Enterprises Ltd has called a shareholder meeting on June 24 to approve the fundraise, Adani Energy Solutions Ltd’s annual general meeting (AGM) is scheduled the next day.
Both the firms secured similar approvals in 2023 but those approvals were set to expire in June, triggering the need for a fresh nod.
In May 2023, the board of Adani Enterprises had approved a fundraise of ₹12,500 crore via QIPs. That month, Adani Energy Solutions, too, got a board nod for raising ₹8,500 crore through QIP.
At an earnings call after its fourth quarter results, the top management of AEL had disclosed that it has outlined a capex of ₹80,000 crore in the current fiscal year. A large part of this would go into new energy under Adani New Industries Ltd and the airports business.
Shares of AEL on Tuesday ended 1.33 per cent lower at ₹3,244.35 on the BSE.
AEL informed the bourses the funds would be raised through QIP or other permissible mode in one or more tranches. It will issue equity shares having face value of ₹1 each “and / or other eligible securities or any combination thereof”.
A QIP is a way for listed companies to raise capital without having to submit legal paperwork to market regulators.
New vistas
The Adani group is looking to give more heft to the “Adani One’’ platform by venturing into e-commerce and payment services.
It plans to offer more consumer facing services digitally as it builds bulk with AI and its data centres to offer a tech ecosystem that will combine a massive user base with partner services, sources said.
A Financial Times report said the group is planning to apply for a licence to operate on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and is in negotiations with banks to launch a co-branded credit card.
All the proposed digital and payment services will be done through the Adani One platform which offers flight and hotel booking services among others.
The Adani One app was launched in December 2022.
Adani has been firming up plans over the past few months to expand the bouquet of services provided by this app.
If the conglomerate forays into payment services, it will compete against Google Pay and Walmart-backed PhonePe. The group declined to comment on the Financial Times story.
Sources said the Adani’s Business-to-Business-to-Consumer (B2B2C) model reaches to hundreds of millions of end users. This base is now being consolidated into a “services” super app. It is expected the end result will be a vast marketplace for Adani and partner offerings.