Adani Group to trim Ambuja Cement stake by 3%

Adani’s big sale: The Gautam Adani-led promoter group may offload as much as 3 per cent of its holding in Ambuja Cement amounting to a fund raise of about $500 million as part of a routine portfolio rebalancing, according to a PTI report.

It would sell around 7 crore shares amounting to 2.84 per cent of the company for Rs 4,198 crore. This would translate into a per-share offer of Rs 600, a discount of 5 per cent over Thursday's closing price of Rs 632.90 on BSE.

Now, on a par with Berkshire Hathaway, the $125 billion Adani group rebalances its holdings periodically amongst its ten listed companies to retain the desired level of stakes in companies.

This rebalancing brings flexibility for any acquisition and helps to meet the requirements of investors. Long-term investors holding its group stocks would like to sell portions of their holdings, and promoters can avail an option to buy back the shares as required.

The proposed stake sale in Ambuja Cement has nothing to do with debt reduction; it's essentially a strategic move.

The group has adequate liquidity and also covers more than 30 months of debt payments. The cash balance at the end of June was 24.8 per cent of total debt of Rs 2.41 lakh crore against 17.7 per cent a year ago.

The Adani Group posted good sets of numbers for the June quarter, with pretax profit rising 33 per cent propped up by its core infrastructure, including solar and wind and rapid growth in emerging businesses.

EBITDA in April-June surged nearly 33 per cent to Rs 22,570 crore while net profit surged over 50 per cent to Rs 10,279 crore on a very strong start to FY'24-25.

(With PTI Inputs)