When billionaire Gautam Adani’s companies will be approaching investors to raise over $4 billion through QIPs later this year, it will be with the satisfaction that, through promoter entities, he has raised over $5.4 billion over the last six months starting from March.

Three major funds - GQG Partners, Qatar Investment Authority, and Bain Capital - have taken stakes in key group firms, including Adani Enterprises, Adani Energy Solutions, Adani Green Energy, Adani Ports, and Adani Power. Of this, the lion’s share of $4.7 billion has come from GQG Partners.

This should give good confidence to investors, said an investment banker who has been keenly watching developments at the group.

Adani Enterprises, Adani Green Energy, and Adani Energy Solutions (formerly Adani Transmission) have got approval to raise ₹33,300 crore through QIPs. This will be used to fund projects over the next three years. At various analyst meets and in conversations with the media, company officials have indicated that they were waiting for the opportune time to launch the QIPs.

The group’s capex in the current year is in the region of around $4 billion of which over $1.1 billion will be in airports, about $1.7 billion for road networks and the remaining in green hydrogen, data centre, and completing its copper project. In a recent analyst call, Group CFO Jugeshinder Singh had said that the current year’s capex was fully funded.

Building investor confidence is important for Adani and his companies, whose reputation and rapid expansion received a setback in January when short-seller hedge fund Hindenburg Research came out with a report with damaging allegations. This resulted in over $130 billion of market capitalisation being wiped out. When GQG Partners came in with over ₹15,000 crore of funds to buy stakes from promoter entities in four companies, it restored some of the confidence in the group.

Investigations into the Hindenburg allegations were launched and while the findings of a Supreme Court-appointed committee seemed vague and inconclusive, a probe by the Securities and Exchange Board of India is still on and expected to submit its report next week.

Last week the group got another jolt when Deloitte, one of the four big auditing firms, resigned as auditor to Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone. This again hit sentiments triggering a sell-off in group companies’ stocks. Again GQG Partners came to the rescue with a $1 billion investment in Adani Power. On Friday Adani group stocks surged to take its market cap over ₹11 lakh crore, the first time in six months.

According to data from the group it has cash balances of over ₹42,000 crore and with the funds group firms have generated in their operations, they are sufficient to meet all its debt obligations for the next three financial years.

In addition, a clutch of foreign banks has been periodically extending credit lines for its various ongoing projects. It has also diversified its capital pool with 40 per cent coming from overseas markets.

A lot is riding on Adani with the group involved in a lot of infrastructure projects. Continuing investor faith will be essential for its long-term plans.

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