Having bagged the control of six major ports and airports in India, Adani was venturing into media with the much talked about NDTV acquisition and even women's cricket. The aggressive expansion came on the heels of a 2500 per cent surge in shares for Adani Enterprises in five years, but all that changed within months.
Following a stock market rout triggered by the Hindenburg report, which slashed Adani's market value by $125 billion, the conglomerate is going slow on expansion.
Backing off from aggressive expansion
In a bid to address investor concerns about its debt, after it was accused of inflating stocks to be pledged for loans, Adani sold family stakes to prepay $2.15 billion in share-backed borrowings.
Apart from selling stakes to equity investors such as Rajiv Jain's GQG, Adani is turning to bond placements for funds and steering clear of risky debt.
The group is now less likely to go ahead with a $4 billion coal to polyvinyl project in Mundra, and will also step back from petrochemicals as well as steel.
Although it denied reports about the PVC project saying that it will achieve financial closure in six months, Adani has also canceled plans to bid for a coal mine.
It also pulled out of the race to acquire a stake in public sector power distributor PTC India.
Reaching out to partners and investors
With the green hydrogen project in partnership with French firm TotalEnergies on hold, Adani has decided to stop bidding for new road projects.
It has also lost orders for smart meters in Uttar Pradesh and is still looking for a buyer to sell its port in Myanmar.
For now, the conglomerate will turn its focus back towards ports, power and green energy.
Apart from the slowdown to reassure partners, Adani's executives have been conducting roadshows in Dubai, London and New York to meet 100 investors every month.
Plans to cut down capital expenditure and also prepay more loans, will further hit the pace of its expansion in the infrastructure space.
