India's Adani Group Cancels Share Sale As Price Nosedives Further

Mumbai, Feb 1 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Feb, 2023 ) :The flagship firm of Indian tycoon Gautam Adani called off a $2.5 billon stock sale Wednesday after its share price slumped by nearly another 30 percent following allegations of accounting fraud.

The five-day rout has now wiped out around $92 billion of the value of the conglomerate's listed units, Bloomberg News said, while Adani's fortune has collapsed by more than $40 billion.

The share sale had been intended to raise funds to pay down borrowing and broaden Adani Enterprises' shareholder base, but US short-seller investment group Hindenburg Research released its explosive report before subscriptions opened.

Adani Enterprises' share price suddenly dropped further on Wednesday afternoon, closing 28.45 percent lower on the Mumbai stock exchange.

The trigger was news that Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse had stopped accepting Adani bonds as collateral for loans it advances to private banking clients, Bloomberg reported.

The offer for sale had been fully subscribed after support from Abu Dhabi-based International Holding Company and, according to Bloomberg citing unidentified sources, fellow Indian tycoons Sajjan Jindal and Sunil Mittal.

But the Adani Enterprises board said in a late-night statement it had "decided, in the interest of its subscribers, not to proceed" with the offer.

The slide in Adani's personal wealth has dropped the school dropout billionaire off the top 10 real-time Forbes rich list and seen him overtaken as Asia's richest man by fellow Indian Mukesh Ambani.

Adani Total Gas -- in which French giant TotalEnergies owns 37.4 percent -- dropped another 10 percent on Wednesday, forcing the Bombay Stock Exchange to suspend trade in the stock soon after the market's open.

Adani Ports dropped almost 18 percent, while Adani Power and Adani Wilmar fell five percent each.