A day after the Adani Group decided to call off the Rs 20,000-crore follow-on public offer (FPO) and return the money to investors, chairman Gautam Adani, explaining the move, said that the ‘interest of his investors was paramount and everything else is secondary’.
In a video message on Thursday morning, he said that the group will review its capital raising plan once the market stabilises. ‘In my humble journey of over 4 decades as an entrepreneur, I have been blessed to receive overwhelming support from all stakeholders particularly the investor community. It is important for me to confess that whatever little I have achieved in life is due to the faith and trust reposed by them. I owe all my success to them. For me, the interest of my investors is paramount and everything else is secondary. Hence to insulate the investors from potential losses we have withdrawn the FPO,’ Adani added.
He further stated: ‘Once the market stabilizes, we’ll review our capital market strategy. We have a strong focus on ESG and every business of ours will continue to create value in a responsible way. The strongest validation of our governance principles, comes from our several international partnerships.’
This came after its FPO had scraped through with non-institutional investors, including HNIs and family offices of industrialists, chipping in. And hours after Swiss lender Credit Suisse Group AG, according to a Bloomberg report, had stopped ‘accepting bonds of Adani Group companies as collateral for margin loans to its private banking clients.’
At the end of the day, Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani’s personal net worth was down $14 billion to $74.7 billion pushing him to No. 15 on the Forbes billionaire list – down from No. 3 barely days ago. All Adani Group stocks were down with Adani Ports falling 19.7%.
Adani group companies have lost market capitalisation of over Rs 7 lakh crore after US- based Hindenburg Research report accused the group of ‘brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud.’ Bank stocks were also hit following the plunge in Adani stocks. Markets are worried about further fall in Adani stocks and there was pressure from investors who put money in the FPO for the withdrawal of the issue, said a market source.
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