Adani hits the road after 2023 setback

Group touts profits, growth opportunity in pitch to investors

- Varun Sood & Satish John

The Adani group has kicked off a series of roadshows to attract wealthy retail investors to buy shares of its 10 listed companies, 11 months after a withering attack by US short seller Hindenburg Research forced the country’s largest conglomerate to drop a previous effort.

About a dozen top group executives met prospective investors in Pune on Friday in the first of these roadshows, pitching the opportunity for "immense wealth creation" through the group’s growth. At a banquet hall in Pune’s Creaticity mall, executives led by group chief financial officer (CFO) Jugeshinder Singh and Jeet Adani, the younger son of founder Gautam Adani, narrated the story of the business steeped in energy, ports, airports and roads, and compared its performance, including growth and profitability, to companies in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector such as Hindustan Unilever and Nestle India.

In his 13-minute opening remarks, Jeet said the group’s listed businesses clocked Ebitda of ₹71,253 crore in the first six months of FY24, more than the ₹70,000-crore-odd Ebitda of the companies comprising India’s FMCG sector, including Hindustan Unilever and Nestle, over the last four years. Ebitda stands for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization.

Jeet said the Adani companies have recorded a compounded annual growth rate of 26%, more than double that of the 11% growth posted by the FMCG companies.