'Our balance sheet is healthy': Gautam Adani after withdrawing FPO

Billionaire Gautam Adani has said the decision to withdraw a fully subscribed share sale of the flagship firm of his group was primarily because of volatility in the market.

Adani Group company stocks have lost over $90 billion in value since a US short seller made damning allegations.

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Adani Enterprises Ltd’s ₹20,000 crore follow-on public offer managed to get investors on the last day of the share close on Tuesday. Late on Wednesday (February 1), the company decided to withdraw the FPO and refund the investors.

“After a fully subscribed FPO, yesterday’s decision of its withdrawal would have surprised many. But considering the volatility of the market seen yesterday, the board strongly felt that it would not be morally correct to proceed with the FPO,” Adani said in a video address to investors on Thursday (February 2).

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The decision, he said, will not have any impact on existing operations and future plans. “We will continue to focus on timely execution and delivery of projects.”

The fundamentals of the company are strong, Adani asserted.

“Our balance sheet is healthy and assets robust. Our EBITDA levels and cash flows have been very strong and we have an impeccable track record of fulfilling our debt obligations. We will continue to focus on long-term value creation and growth will be managed by internal accruals.”

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Adani said the group would review the capital market strategy once the market stabilises.

“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 several international partnerships we have built across our different entities,” he added.