Rajiv Jain's GQG Partners, Adani's 1st investor after Hindenburg selloff, now owns Rs 40,000 crore worth 6 group shares

Rajiv Jain's GQG Partners, which was the first strategic investor in Adani group companies in the aftermath of Hindenburg Research report, held six Adani group shares worth Rs 40,000 crore at last count. On a day, the Supreme Court pronounced its verdict on a batch of petitions related to the Adani-Hindenburg case, GQG Partners' holding in the Adani group climbed to Rs 40,470 crore. GQG started investing in Adani stocks on March 2, 2023, when it bough Rs 15,446.35 crore worth four group stocks.

Rajiv Jain is Chairman and Chief Investment Officer (CIO) at GQG Partners. His Florida-headquartered private equity firm owned shares of Adani Energy Solutions Ltd, Adani Enterprises Ltd, Adani Green Energy Ltd, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd, Adani Power Ltd and Ambuja Cements Ltd. This is based on the September quarter shareholding data available for the 10 Adani group firms and Wednesday's intraday share prices. The December quarter data is yet to be out.

Data showed GQG Partners held Rs 9,375.90 crore worth Adani Green Energy shares at Wednesday's intraday levels. Goldman Sachs Trust Ii - Goldman Sachs GQG Partners International Opportunities Fund held 3,49,38,400.00 or 2.21 per cent stake in Adai Green while GQG Partners Emerging Markets Equity Fund held another 2,12,93,947 shares or 1.34 per cent stake in Adani Green Energy.

Two funds linked to GQG Partners held Rs 9,367.99 crore worth shares in Adani Enterprises, the Adani group flagship. Two GQG-related funds Rs 8,352.08 crore in Adani Power while two funds owned Rs 8,259 crore worth Adani Ports stocks.

In Ambuja Cements, GQG Partners Emerging Markets Equity Fund owned 3,57,78,513 shares or 1.8 per cent worth stake in Ambuja Cements worth Rs 1,911 crore. Goldman Sachs Trust Ii - Goldman Sachs GQG Partners International Opportunities Fund held Rs 3,203.95 crore worth shares in Adani Energy Solutions.

Last year, Rajiv Jain told Business Today magazine that his PE firm started looking at the group more closely after the Hindenburg report. It wanted to see what could potentially go wrong and how much impact it would have.

"When we started doing the work this year, what we found was that the more work we did, the more bullish we got. In our view, they have world-class operating assets with utility-like characteristics. We feel that the Adanis’ asset allocation decisions have been remarkably good. If you buy Mumbai airport or any other airport during Covid-19, when it is likely a distressed sale, the transaction has a high probability of doing well. Another example would be solar modules. They were not in that business even a few years ago," he said.

"Now, they will be one of the largest producers of solar modules outside of China. If anybody wants to set up data centres in India, who would they go to [other than the Adanis]? It’s [also] an electricity business... [but] the group is one of the lowest- cost producers of electricity in the country. What is also not appreciated is that if India wants to be net zero by 2070, it likely cannot happen without this group," Raji Jain said in the August 2023 interview .

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