NEW DELHI, Feb 2 (NNN-Bernama) — Indian tycoon Gautam Adani’s flagship company Adani Enterprises on Wednesday cancelled its US$2.5 billion share offering amid a rapid erosion in the conglomerate’s market value.
The company’s 200 billion rupees (about US$2.5 billion) follow-on public offering (FPO) was fully subscribed on the final day of the offer on Tuesday.
“Given the unprecedented situation and the current market volatility the company aims to protect the interest of its investing community by returning the FPO proceeds and withdraws the completed transaction,” Adani Enterprises said in a statement on Wednesday.
Adani Group, which has seven listed companies and many subsidiaries, has seen its market value slump by US$86 billion since United States-based Hindenburg Research accused it of stock manipulation and accounting fraud in a report on January 24.
Adani Group has dismissed the report as “mischievous” and “unresearched” and is in an acrimonious fight with Hindenburg over the allegations of wrongdoing.
Its billionaire owner on Wednesday slipped to 15th on the Forbes list of the world’s richest people after starting the day at number eight position as he suffered a further fall of US$13 billion in wealth, according to the Forbes real-time billionaires list.
Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, whose net worth is estimated to be US$83.7 billion, overtook Adani as the richest Indian.
Besides Adani Enterprises, the group has six more listed entities — Adani Ports, Adani Wilmar, Adani Power, Adani Transmission, Adani Green Energy and Adani Total Gas.
Adani thanked the investors for subscribing to the FPO “despite the volatility in the stock over the last week.”
“However, today the market has been unprecedented, and our stock price has fluctuated over the course of the day. Given these extraordinary circumstances, the Company’s board felt that going ahead with the issue would not be morally correct,” he said in the company statement on Wednesday.
The FPO was priced in the range of 3,112 rupees to 3,276 rupees.
Adani Enterprises plunged 28.5 per cent to 2,128 rupees on Wednesday.
— NNN-BERNAMA