LIC, GQG signal interest in ₹24,930 crore Adani Enterprises rights issue

LIC and GQG Partners have indicated interest in subscribing to Adani Enterprises' rights issue, with RE trading active and most applications expected closer to the December 10 deadline

Insurance major Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and boutique investment firm GQG Partners have indicated interest in participating in the ongoing ₹24,930 crore rights issue of Adani Enterprises (AEL), the flagship company of the Gautam Adani group, according to people familiar with the matter.

 

Both marquee investors — among the largest public shareholders in AEL, the holding-cum-incubation arm of Adani group — currently hold an equity stake of around 4 per cent each.

 

“During the roadshow, the company received encouraging feedback from existing and prospective institutional investors. Most have shown an inclination to participate in the fundraise. Both GQG and LIC are sitting on healthy mark-to-market gains on their overall investments in Adani group firms,” said an official aware of the discussions.

 

LIC, GQG, and AEL did not respond to emails seeking comment.

 

Participation by LIC and GQG in proportion to their shareholding would require an investment of roughly ₹1,000 crore each. Prospective investors have the option to subscribe via rights entitlements (REs), the trading window for which remains open until Friday.

 

So far, RE units worth over ₹700 crore have been traded, exchange data shows. The last traded price of one RE unit was ₹379. One RE gives the unitholder the right to subscribe to one share.

 

Shares of AEL closed at ₹2,219 on Monday, up 1.4 per cent from the previous close.

 

The rights issue will remain open until December 10, with most shareholders expected to submit their applications next week, sources said. Nearly three-fourths of the total proceeds will come from the promoter group, which currently holds 73.97 per cent in AEL.

 

AEL is issuing 138.5 million new shares at ₹1,800 apiece — 19 per cent below the last closing price. The company will initially issue partly paid shares, with subscribers paying in three instalments: ₹900 per share at the time of application, followed by two calls of ₹450 each in January and March 2026.

 

AEL plans to use a significant portion of the proceeds to repay or prepay existing borrowings at both the company and its subsidiary, Adani Airport Holdings. AEL had outstanding loans of ₹1.1 trillion at the end of September 2025, up from ₹80,400 crore a year ago.

 

In the first half of 2025-26, the company recorded net sales of ₹43,210 crore and a net profit of ₹4,292 crore, up 21 per cent from ₹3,539 crore during the same period a year earlier.

 

In 2023, AEL had withdrawn its fully subscribed ₹20,000 crore follow-on public offering after its share price fell sharply following allegations by US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research.