Gautam Adani, brother Rajesh cut stake in Adani Enterprises by 3.39% to 69.23%

Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani and his brother Rajesh Adani reduced their stake in Adani Enterprises Ltd, the conglomerate's flagship firm, by 3.39% to 69.23%. They also reduced their stake in Adani Transmission by 2.55% to 71.65%. 

The development comes a day after Adani Group announced that US boutique investment firm GQG Partners bought shares worth Rs 15,446 crore in four Adani firms. 

Adani shares surged on Friday after the investment by GQG Partners eased concerns about Adani Group's ability to attract funding after a short-seller's scathing report in January. Shares of flagship Adani Enterprises rose as much as 17.5% on Friday, while Adani Ports surged 10%. Adani Green Energy and Adani Transmission jumped 5% each.

Dollar bonds issued by Adani entities also rallied, with Adani Green Energy's 2024 bond adding 2.3 cents on the dollar to trade at 85.5 cents, while most bonds issued by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, Adani Transmission and Adani Electricity Mumbai rose by more than 1%.

The ten listed Adani Group firms saw their combined market capitalisation climb a whopping Rs 1.73 lakh crore in the past four trading sessions till March 3. The market valuation of Hindenburg-hit Adani Group companies jumped to Rs 8.55 lakh crore on March 3 from Rs 6.82 lakh crore on February 27.

In the Jan. 24 report, U.S.-based Hindenburg Research noted high debt and alleged improper use of offshore tax havens and stock manipulation, which Adani denied. A dive in Adani stocks then prompted the group to shelve a Rs 20,000-crore FPO. 

SB Adani Family Trust has cumulatively sold about 21 crore in four of the Adani Group companies through the open market on Thursday. GQG Partners bought 2.84 crore shares of Adani Transmission on Thursday at Rs 668.4 apiece aggregating to Rs 1,898 crore, 3.87 crore shares of Adani Enterprises at Rs 1,410.86 apiece aggregating to Rs 5,460 crore, 8.86 crore shares of Adani Ports at Rs 596.2 apiece aggregating to Rs 5,282 crore, 5.56 crore shares of Adani Green Energy at Rs 504.60 apiece aggregating to Rs 2,806 crore.

Interestingly, last month Adani Enterprises decided not to go ahead with its Rs 20,000-crore Follow-on Public Offer (FPO) and returned the proceeds to investors, a day after the FPO was subscribed fully on the last day of the offer.

As many as 4.62 crore shares were sought as against an offer of 4.55 crore. Shares were sold in a price band of Rs 3,112-Rs 3,276. 

Non-institutional investors put in bids for over three times the 96.16 lakh shares reserved for them, while the 1.28 crore shares reserved for qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) were almost fully subscribed.

Retail investors, for whom roughly half of the issue was reserved, had bid for just 11 per cent of the 2.29 crore shares earmarked for them.