Marquee investors Maybank Securities, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority were among the marquee investors to pick up stake in Adani Enterprises’ Rs 20,000-crore follow-on public offering on Wednesday, which coincided with a short-seller report that led to a near Rs 1 lakh crore erosion in combined m-cap of Adani Group companies.
The anchor portion of the share sale was allocated to high-profile investors at Rs 3,276 per share, which was the top end of the price band set for the sale.
“High quality foreign institutional investors names like Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Maybank Asia, Goldman Sachs, Nomura, Societe Generale, Jupiter, BNP Paribas, Al Mehwar, Citi group, Morgan Stanley participated in the issuance,” said Adani Enterprises in a stock exchange filing.
Domestic investors such as SBI Employee Pension Fund, HDFC Life, Life Insurance Corporation of India, SBI Life and others like MK Ventures were also a part of the anchor book.
A source told Reuters earlier on Wednesday that anchor investors bid for shares worth Rs 9,000 crore, compared to the Rs 6,000 crore reserved for them.
Adani Enterprises, the flagship firm of Adani Group, is looking to fund capital expenditure and pay off some debt from the proceeds of the share sale.
Maybank was allocated 34.09% of the 18.2 million shares reserved for institutional investors for Rs 2,040 crore, while ADIA got 2.56% worth Rs 153 crore.
Life Insurance Corp of India was allocated shares worth nearly Rs 300 crore. Bidding for retail investors will start on Friday and close on Jan. 31. Adani Enterprises had last week set the floor price for the FPO at Rs 3,112 per share, with a price cap of Rs 3,276.
The demand from anchor investors comes despite Hindenburg Research disclosing a short position in Adani Group, accusing it of improper use of offshore tax havens and flagging concerns about high debt.
The group led by Gautam Adani, the world’s third richest person according to Forbes, dismissed the claims of the US short seller as baseless, saying it was timed to damage its reputation ahead of a large share offering.
Shares of Adani Group companies closed between 1.5% and 8.9% lower on Wednesday.