Adani Enterprises shares in news as promoter entity buys stake, subsidiary forms JV

Shares of Adani Enterprises Ltd will be in focus on Tuesday morning as the Adani group promoters upped stake in the group's flagship firm, taking it close to the 70 per cent mark. Kempas Trade and Investment Ltd, a promoter group entity, bought addition shares, taking promoters’ stake to 69.87 per cent in Adani Enterprises from 67.65 per cent per cent earlier. In total, the promoter entity acquired 2.22 per cent stake via open market operations between August 7 and August 18, the Adani group said in an exchange filing on Monday.  

In separate releases, Adani Enterprises said a wholly-owned subsidiary Adani Airport Holdings Limited, which is a holding company of Adani Group for its airports business, incorporated a joint venture company namely “Tabemono True Aromas Private Limited” with Travel Food Services Private Limited for the purpose of strategic partnership to develop, operate and maintain various hospitality services and formats at multiple locations. It also incorporated Sirius Digitech International to provide digital solutions and services. 

Adani group firms have been in news of late. The US-based boutique investment firm GQG Partners recently increased its stake in Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) to 5.03 per cent last month by way of a bulk deal. GQG Partners previously held a 4.93 per cent stake in Adani Ports but it acquired an additional 0.10 per cent stake, equivalent to 2.2 million shares of the company, through a bulk transaction as detailed in the disclosure released late on Saturday. The investment firm, which was first to pump money into the group after Hindenburg Research's report caused a massive rout in stock values, now has a stake in five of the 10 firms of the Adani Group.

Last week, GQG bought a 7.73 per cent stake in Adani Power Ltd. Adani Power's promoter group firms Worldwide Emerging Market Holding and Afro ASIA Trade And Investments sold an 8.09 per cent stake in the power company through block deals on August 16. Of this, the investment firm bought 7.73 per cent. After the stake sale, promoter holding in Adani Power declined to 66.88 per cent from 74.97 per cent. The investment comes days after Deloitte quit as auditor of APSEZ, renewing investor concerns.

In January, Hindenburg accused the group of indulging in "accounting fraud" and "stock price manipulation". The short-seller also alleged that the conglomerate used shell firms for alleged fraud and had massive debts. Adani Group denied all charges and took a series of actions like scrapping acquisition plans and pre-paying debt to alley investors' fears about the group's cash flows.

GQG has, however, shrugged off the allegations and has since May invested billions of dollars in Adani firms. GQG had previously picked up a 5.4 per cent stake in Adani Enterprises, a 6.54 per cent stake in Adani Green Energy Ltd and a 2.5 per cent stake in Adani Transmission Ltd. GQG has so far invested Rs 38,700 crore in Adani Group firms.