Adani Enterprises QIP: Quant MF secures nearly half of all the shares

Quant Mutual Fund has emerged as a standout performer, dominating the equity scheme performance charts in recent years, with its high-conviction bets paying off

Quant Mutual Fund has subscribed to nearly half of the new shares sold by Adani Enterprises (AEL) in its recently concluded Rs 4,200 crore qualified institutional placement (QIP). 

The Gautam Adani group flagship firm issued 14.17 million new shares at Rs 2,962 apiece. Shares of AEL last closed at Rs 3,085.5, down 0.6 per cent.

According to a stock exchange filing made by AEL, Quant Mutual Fund via nine different schemes subscribed for 6.66 million shares. Quant Small Cap Fund subscribed for the highest number of shares (2.47 million), while Quant Quantamental Fund and Quant Momentum Fund subscribed for 168,804 shares each.

Besides Quant, Winro Commercial, Tree Line Asia Master Fund, and SBI Life Insurance were investors who subscribed for over 5 per cent of shares offered in the QIP.

This is not the first time Quant Mutual Fund has placed an aggressive wager on Adani group stocks.

In 2022, its schemes rode the momentum in Adani stocks —emerging as the only fund house to take aggressive active calls on the power-to-ports conglomerate.

However, after the Hindenburg report against Adani in early 2023, the fund house shifted the allocation towards Reliance Industries and Jio Financial. The move also proved to be a key driver for its schemes' performance in the last one year.

Quant MF has emerged as a standout performer, dominating the equity scheme performance charts in recent years, with its high-conviction bets working out well.

During the three months till September 2024, Quant MF had average assets under management (AAUM) of Rs 97,100 crore, making it the 17th largest fund house in the country.  During the June 2020 quarter, the fund house had an AAUM of less than Rs 250 crore.

In June, Quant MF was in the news following a search and seizure operation carried out by market regulator Sebi over suspected front-running. In a statement back then, the fund house said that it had received inquiries from Sebi and that it was cooperating in the review.

"In the quarter ended March 2023, we were the worst performers in all the equity categories. After three quarters, we were back at the top of the charts. We are agile and data-driven. Our processes are strong and so is our analytics. We say objectivity is our religion and data is our god," Sandeep Tandon, founder, CEO & CIO, Quant MF had written in his address to investors after the front-running investigation in June.