News from Gautam Adani: The biggest receiver of $750 million in private bonds issued by the Adani Group is a fund run by the multinational financial behemoth BlackRock. According to people with direct knowledge of the situation, the USD-based asset manager, which is in charge of $12 trillion in assets, is accepting a third of the $750 million issuance with a three- to five-year maturity.

The investment coincides with the attention surrounding Adani Group executives who were charged with bribery by the US Department of Justice in November of last year. With this acquisition, BlackRock takes its first private stake in India’s infrastructure market, which the company has been becoming more optimistic about.

Following BlackRock’s US$12.5 billion purchase of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a significant participant in ports, energy, and digital infrastructure, chairman Larry Fink said in January 2024 that infrastructure is one of the most intriguing long-term investment prospects.

Five other institutional investors, mostly from the US and Europe, joined Adani Group’s most recent capital raising in addition to BlackRock. Sona Asset Management’s funds are among them.

Renew Exim DMCC, a fully owned offshore company of the Adani Group promoter family, will issue a US$750 million bond issuance to fund the purchase of ITD Cementation and other expansion opportunities.

At a time when the DOJ investigation is casting doubt on their capacity to raise capital, the Adani Group views the arrival of the biggest investor in the world as a strong vote of confidence.

BlackRock’s participation also implies that the legal processes are not expected to cause any major operational interruption to the merger. This is the Adani Group’s second private dollar bond offering. The organisation raised over $200 million for port operations in Australia in February. The most notable increase since the DOJ indictments is the most recent one, which is almost four times as many.

In order to fund the purchase of ITD Cementation, the private group-level company Renew Exim raised US$750 million. In order to bolster its technical expertise in the infrastructure industry, Adani Group revealed last year that it had paid Rs 5,888.57 crore to acquire a 46.64 cent interest in ITD Cementation from the promoter.

Then, via an open offer at Rs 400 per share, Renew Exim won an extra 20.81 cent. ITD Cementation is seen as a crucial asset for Adani’s long-term infrastructure goals because of its work on important projects including the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and ports at Tuticorin, Mundra, and Vijinjam.