Gautam Adani on IPO Strategy

Adani Enterprises was preparing a $1 billion share sale by mid-September 2024, having shelved the record $2.5 billion FPO withdrawn in the wake of Hindenburg's first allegations. Adani Energy separately raised $1 billion from U.S. investors and sovereign wealth funds earlier that month — evidence that capital-markets access, while impaired, had not been fully shut off.

The 2007 Mundra Port & SEZ IPO was 116 times oversubscribed, and Adani Power Ltd's 2009 IPO was 21x subscribed. The capital-markets access these IPOs unlocked fueled the overseas mine acquisitions in Indonesia (Bunyu, 2008) and Australia (Carmichael, 2010-2011), marking Adani's transition from domestic infrastructure operator to global resource player.

The timing of publication, just ahead of Adani Enterprises' $2.5 billion follow-on public offering opening January 27, 2023, was strategically chosen to maximize damage. Adani Group CFO Jugeshinder 'Robbie' Singh called it a 'brazen, mala fide intention' to sabotage the FPO; the FPO was withdrawn on February 1, 2023, after stock prices cratered and Adani fell from 3rd to 22nd on Forbes' billionaires tracker.