The Adani Group aims to raise 71.48 billion rupees (approximately S$1.1 billion) by selling up to a 20% stake in Mumbai-listed Adani Wilmar, as it exits non-core activities to concentrate on its core infrastructure businesses.
According to a stock exchange filing on Thursday (January 9), the shares will be divested through an offer-for-sale window of the stock exchanges, with a floor price set at 275 rupees per share. The offering will take place over two trading days, beginning on January 10 for institutional investors and high net worth individuals, and on January 13 for retail buyers. Adani Wilmar shares closed at 323.45 rupees in Mumbai, with a slight decline of 0.8%.
Adani Commodities, one of the founders of Adani Wilmar, will sell 175.45 million shares, representing a 13.5% stake, with an additional greenshoe option to offer 84.5 million shares, or a 6.5% stake, as stated in the filing.
This represents the initial phase of the port-to-power conglomerate's withdrawal from the joint venture, in which it holds a 44% stake. In the subsequent phase, Singapore's Wilmar International has agreed to acquire the remaining stake at a price not exceeding 305 rupees.
Upon completion of these transactions, the Gautam Adani-led conglomerate will fully exit the firm and utilize the proceeds to strengthen its core infrastructure ventures, including airports and renewable energy.
The stake sale is occurring amidst legal challenges faced by Adani in the United States, where federal prosecutors have accused him of being involved in a bribery scheme to secure contracts in India. Rating agencies have highlighted this as a potential risk to the group's fund-raising efforts and have placed multiple Adani firms under negative watch.
Adani Wilmar was scheduled to initiate a share sale last year in order to comply with a local securities law, which mandates that at least 25% of the company's holdings must be owned by public shareholders within three years of its listing.
The company listed in 2022 and has until February to adhere to this regulation. In August 2023, Bloomberg reported that Adani Enterprises was considering selling a stake in its consumer-staple joint venture to allocate capital towards its core business.
