Adani Enterprise Ltd: On Solid Ground Powered by the Mozambique Deal

CMP: Rs.82.95

Target: Rs.88-99

Last year, Adani Enterprises Ltd, the flagship company of the Adani Group, de-merged its power, ports and electricity transmission businesses into separate companies, making the holding structure clearer for investors. Adani Enterprises shareholders will benefit from the merger of Adani Mining Pvt Ltd.

Adani Enterprises has a net debt of Rs.19,298 crore, representing 1.3 times the book value of shareholders equity. The group is part way into a new $5-10 billion solar investment programme.

Ameet Desai, executive director and chief financial officer of Adani Enterprises, said the company's long-term debt was about Rs.8,300 crore and net of cash this figure went down to Rs.6,280 crore. The balance Rs.12,000 crore was working capital and the net long-term debt to equity ratio was 0.5%, he said.

The company earlier said it is ramping up coal production and is well placed to tap the growth opportunities in domestic coal mining space. Adani Enterprises Ltd is now more or less, a trading company with the mining business being merged into it. Post completion of coal mine auctions, the opportunity is in the domestic coal MDO (mine developer operator) business where the company enjoys an early-mover advantage.

After the demerger Adani Enterprises is largely focused on coal. The company management, is confident of scaling up the MDO (mine developer operator) business manifold over the next five years (in FY15 it clocked around 3 mn tonne output under MDO for Rajasthan utilities) given the large opportunity that has come up after coal auctions. Despite domestic coal output slated to rise, the management remains upbeat on coal demand trickling into sustained trading volumes going ahead.

Gujarat-based food and edible oils firm Adani Wilmer and Madhya Pradesh-headquartered Ruchi Soya Industries have tied up to form a joint venture company for procurement, marketing, sales, and distribution of products such as soya food, oil seeds, and biodiesel.

The new joint venture (JV) company will cater to domestic food demand and both Adani Wilmer and Ruchi Soya will provide manufacturing support to this JV. Through their joint venture, Adani Wilmer, Adani Enterprises, and Wilmer International will hold a stake of 66.66% in the JV company, while Ruchi Soya will hold the rest — 33.34%. 

Adani Enterprises, earlier incorporated subsidiary Korba Clean Coal Pvt Ltd for carrying on the business of coal washing.

Coal prices in the US remain weak, but overseas, coal, particularly thermal coal, is having an impressive run. There, the commodity is getting a boost from robust Chinese demand and weather related shipping delays, which have impacted the commodity’s availability.

The way, which China is supporting coal, is somewhat interesting. While the country appears to be standing by its word to cut coal emissions, it is first doing this by cracking down on domestic coal miners and trying to curtail industrial overcapacity and this in turn is reducing the domestic supply of coal and necessitating an increase in coal imports.

The nation’s coal output will fall by 280 million tons this year as the government seeks to curtail industrial overcapacity, according to officials with the National Development and Reform Commission. In terms of imports, Deng Shun, an analyst with ICIS China, thinks coal imports will be sustained at more than 20 million tons a month in the second half of the year.

Earlier this month, seaborne thermal coal rose to its highest price in more than 10 months as Chinese buyers worked to scoop up coal supplies amid the government’s clampdown on overcapacity. In addition, demand for coal has improved amid the rebound of natural gas and oil prices.

Meanwhile, Adani Enterprises Ltd has secured approval from the Gujarat government to begin work on building a solar power equipment plant on its own after earlier unsuccessful attempts to build the plant in partnership with technology providers such as clean-power developer SunEdison.

Work on the first phase of the project has started and is expected to be commissioned this year, said two government officials familiar with the plan. The Adani Group plans to invest $2 billion in the project to make solar panels and solar photo-voltaic cells.