Opinion: Gautam Adani Needs Investors Who At Least Have A Website

The Adani juggernaut will roll on. However, as the group gets bigger - and more covetous of cash-generating assets - it would need larger dollops of outside equity. It would be helpful if it comes from investors who at least have a website.

Gautam Adani's debt-fueled empire received a jolt this week when the Economic Times reported that three of the six Mauritius-based funds that have invested most of their money in the Indian billionaire's stocks had seen their accounts frozen by the national share depository. The Adani Group refuted the report as "blatantly erroneous," helping to put a floor below plunging share prices. But not before $6 billion of wealth was lost on Monday. The jitters returned the next day with an announcement that the accounts for Cresta Fund Ltd., Albula Investment Fund Ltd. and APMS Investment Fund Ltd. are in "suspended for debit" status as per a Securities and Exchange Board of India regulation. Adani Total Gas Ltd., Adani Power Ltd. and Adani Transmission Ltd. all fell by their 5% daily limit in Mumbai on Tuesday. The selling continued on Wednesday. A temporary bout of nervousness in the stock market won't shake Asia's second-richest man, who has managed to sustain - without any visibility on future profit - a decade-long entanglement in a controversial and costly coal mine investment in Australia. Behind that confidence lies the workhorse of the group. Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd. is spewing $1 billion of cash annually, a nine-fold jump from 2014.