Adani Energy gets board approval to raise up to $1.5 billion

Adani Energy Solutions Ltd., the power utility controlled by billionaire Gautam Adani, has secured board nod to raise as much as 125 billion rupees ($1.5 billion), in a sign that the conglomerate will step up capital spending.

The fund raising, which still needs other approvals including from shareholders, can happen in one or more tranches through various instruments, including share sale to institutions, the company said in a filing Monday to the exchanges. 

The board of the flagship and the holding company, Adani Enterprises Ltd., is scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss fundraising proposals. These firms secured similar approvals in 2023 to raise a total of $2.6 billion but those approvals are set to expire in June.

Adani Enterprises is likely to get board consent for as much as $1.5 billion while Adani Energy can raise up to $500 million, Bloomberg News reported earlier in the day citing people familiar with the internal discussions who did not want to be identified as the information is not public yet.

A representative from Adani Group did not offer any immediate comments on the flagship’s fundraising plans.

The two companies are aiming to tap four to five big international investors who are keen to participate in India’s infrastructure growth, the people said. The move, if successful, will broaden the shareholder base — one of the key criticisms against Adani Group companies — as well as increase its heft globally.

The ports-to-power conglomerate, which has raised almost $6 billion from marquee investors including Rajiv Jain’s GQG Partners LLC, Qatar Investment Authority and TotalEnergies SE since January 2023, is back to aggressively expanding its businesses. A scathing short-seller attack by Hindenburg Research early last year had forced the conglomerate to rein in debt and go-slow on its rapid growth spree, after a stock rout wiped out more than $150 billion in market value.

The board approvals for fundraising are enabling resolutions so that companies can act quickly whenever they find the best financing terms. It’s not mandatory for companies to raise these funds.

Five out of 10 Adani Group stocks have risen to pre-Hindenburg levels and tycoon Adani’s net worth has surged $25 billion this year to go past $109 billion, as it continues to claw back lost ground with investors and lenders. 

Adani Enterprises, known as the incubator of the group, last week briefly recovered all its losses since the Hindenburg report but Adani Energy is still reeling almost 60% below the level it was at before the short-seller’s bombshell report.