Adani may sell 20% in overseas mining arm through London IPO

Ahmedabad-based Adani Enterprises Ltd, India's biggest coal importer, may sell a stake in its unit Adani Mining Ltd, which holds mining rights in the Asia-Pacific region, to international investors and use the proceeds to add energy assets, the company said.

It may sell a stake of as much as 20 per cent in Adani Mining in an initial public offering in London within the next two years, Gautam Adani, the billionaire chairman of Adani Enterprises, told Bloomberg in an interview on Tuesday.

The Adani group wants to tap overseas investors keen to benefit from the rising power demand in India, whose growth is being held back by a perennial shortage of power.

Adani is buying coal mines to help feed the company's $20 billion push to increase power generating capacity tenfold in the South Asian nation. The company has mining rights in Australia, Indonesia and India.

An overseas listing will improve the company's ''capability to raise funds for further fueling acquisitions,'' Adani, 48, said in the interview in Mumbai. ''India will remain energy hungry for the next 50 years.''

Adani declined to comment on the amount the company plans to raise.

Adani Enterprises is among Morgan Stanley's ''favourite'' stocks that can potentially double in three years, analysts led by Morgan Stanley's India managing director Ridham Desai said in a report on Tuesday.

Adani, who dropped out from school after finishing his 10th grade, is India's sixth-richest man with $10 billion of assets, according to Forbes magazine.