Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL) on Monday announced its decision to exit its joint venture with Wilmar International Limited through bulk disinvestment of its stake in Adani Wilmar Limited (AWL).
The statement issued by the company said that the agreement for this deal was signed on December 30. Adani Group informed the exchange about this. This deal is expected to raise $2 billion for AEL. The transaction highlights Adani’s strategic focus on streamlining its portfolio and unlocking liquidity to invest in its core businesses. The proceeds from the deal will be directed to accelerate growth in key infrastructure sectors including energy, utilities, transportation and logistics and other industry-related enterprises. According to a report, the company has sold its entire stake in the open market to a Singapore partner for about $2 billion. That means Adani Enterprises will no longer sell grocery items like flour, pulses, rice. This is the first major transaction in the Gautam Adani-led company after the US Justice Department indicted Adani Group in November.
AEL, along with its wholly owned subsidiary Adani Commodities LLP (ACL), on Monday entered into a definitive agreement with Lans Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of Wilmar International Ltd. Under the terms of the new agreement, Lens will acquire all the equity stock of AWL held by ACL through call or put options. Which amounts to 31.06 per cent of the current paid-up equity share capital of AWL. AEL will sell its additional 13 per cent equity stake in AWL to comply with the minimum public shareholding norms. After completion of this phase, AEL will completely sell its 44 per cent stake in AWL.
With this, Adani Group aims to strengthen the incubation capacity of AEL. Which has enabled it to focus more on its customer service divisions, namely Adani Airports and Adani Digital. These segments collectively serve an estimated 350 million customers. At the portfolio level the group has deployed about 63 per cent of its total assets in equities. The company said the transaction is expected to further improve this ratio. AEL and other Adani Group units have raised significant capital in the last four months. AEL secures $500 billion in October 2024. The AWL transaction will raise a total of $2.5 billion.
Additionally, other group companies such as Adani Energy Solutions Ltd, Ambuja Cement Ltd, Adani Green Energy Ltd collectively raised about $2 billion in the same period. This figure reached a total of 4.5 billion dollars.
Adani Enterprises Ltd, which holds 43.94 per cent stake in Adani Wilmar Ltd, which sells Fortune brand of cooking oil, wheat flour and other food products, said it will sell 31.06 per cent stake in the company to Wilmar International. There had been speculation for some time that Adani Enterprises would exit the joint venture with Adani Wilmar. Finally the decision was taken on Monday.
