Australia-listed investment firm GQG Partners, based in the US, have made multiple round of investing in the Adani Group companies since the group was hit by the short seller Hindenburg Research in late January. On August 16th, 2023, GQG Partners bought 8.1% of the total outstanding shares of the power-to-port conglomerate Adani Group's company, Adani Power Ltd., for about $1.1 billion through block deals. This was the largest secondary market equity deal with a roughly Rs. 9000 crore price tag, with more than 31 crore shares bought. Adani Power Limited is India's largest private thermal power producer, with an installed capacity of 13,650 MW.
In late January, when the group was hit by Heisenberg research and Gautam Adani, the chairman of the Adani group, called off the FPO, the group subsequently was in a hurry to deleverage its balance sheet. Since then, most of the funds from the sale of holdings has been used to pare debt and other general corporate purposes.
The promoter entities of the Adani Group have been selling stakes in group companies either to release pledged shares or pay down short-term maturing debt. Two Adani group promoter companies, Worldwide Emerging Market Holding and Afro Asia Trade and Investments Ltd., were the selling entities in two large block deals on the BSE. Worldwide Emerging Market Holding held a 5% stake, and Afro Asia Trade and Investments Ltd. held a 6.88% stake in the company. Worldwide Emerging Market Holding, part of the promoter group, offloaded a 1.2% stake, while Afro Asia Trade and Investments sold its entire stake. Before the deal was stuck, the promoter family held 74.97%, or 289.16 crore equity shares, in the utility company. The block deal also comes after the Qatar Investment Authority bought a roughly 2.7% stake in the listed green energy business earlier this month.
GQG Partners holds about $13 billion in Indian companies, including ITC and SBI, to name a few. In March of this year, GQG Partners acquired almost $2 billion worth of shares in four of Adani's firms. In May, it raised its stake in the Adani Group by about 10% by buying shares from the market. As of June 2023, GQG holds 2.67% of Adani Enterprises and 3.5% of Adani Green Energy. The US-based investment firm also bought a stake worth Rs 1,676 crore in Adani Transmission.
Yesterday, Adani Power shares closed approx. 2% down on news of promoter selling stake but made a gap-up opening today and is trading at Rs. 284.
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