The Adani Group on Thursday raised ₹15,446 crore after selling shares in four of its listed companies to GQG partners, a US boutique investment firm. GQG Partners is a nearly seven-year-old investment firm that bets on safe, defensive stocks, according to a Bloomberg report. After hitting the headlines for the first major investment in the embattled Adani Group following the scathing report by Hindenburg Research that triggered a stock rout, the man behind the massive block deal – Rajiv Jain – is grabbing the limelight.
Who is Rajiv Jain?
Jain shifted to the US in 1990 to study MBA at the University of Miami after being born and raised in India. With over 23 years of expertise, Jain founded GQG Partners in 2016 and is its chairman and chief investment officer. As per his LinkedIn profile, he is also the portfolio manager for all GQG Partners strategies and was honoured as the Morningstar Fund Manager of the Year (Global Equities) in 2012. Last month, his investment company was named ‘Fund Manager of the Year – Global Equities’ at the Morningstar Australia Awards.
LiveMint reported that Jain’s career as a portfolio manager kickstarted in 1994. After serving as chief investment officer and head of equities at Vontobel Asset Management from January 2002, he was made the co-CEO from March 2014 to May 2016.
By the time he left Vontobel, its Emerging Market Fund returned a total of 70 per cent in 10 years, more than double the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, Bloomberg stated.
With a majority stake in his own firm, he pumps in most of his money into its funds. ITC, HDFC, RIL, ICICI Bank, SBI, Sun Pharma, Infosys, and Bharti Airtel are the top companies that feature in his Indian stockholdings. In 2021, GQG raised $893 million becoming Australia’s largest initial public offering (IPO) of the year. He is renowned for his knowledge in tracking bargain buys in equities.
‘Forward Looking Quality’
According to the company website, it employs fund managers from 10 countries and manages over $88 billion in assets for more than 800 entities.
Through an approach titled ‘Forward Looking Quality’, GQG Partners details in its website that it strives to increase their clients’ wealth by protecting assets in choppy markets and participating in emerging markets. The concept believes in investing in companies that they predict to be successful within five years, stepping over the conventional investment restrictions related to growth and value.
Explaining the rationale behind the Adani deal, Reuters quoted Jain in a statement, “We believe that the long-term growth prospects for these companies are substantial, and we are pleased to be investing in companies that will help advance India’s economy and energy infrastructure, including their energy transition over the long-run.”
As per the press release, GQG Partners invested ₹5,460 crore for 38,701,168 equity shares in Adani Enterprises and 8.86 crore equity shares for ₹5,282 crore in Adani Ports. It also purchased 2.84 crore equity shares for ₹1,898 crore in Adani Total Gas, and 5.56 crore equity shares for ₹2,806 crore in Adani Green Energy.
On Thursday, Adani Enterprises stock gained nearly 3%, while Adani Ports jumped by 3.5%. The market cap of Adani Group stocks surged by over ₹30,170 crore in a day with the overall share value of its 10 companies becoming ₹7,86,342.14 crore.
Also read: ‘ ₹3,200 cr loss for LIC so far…’: Mahua Moitra’s jab on Adani stocks’ report
The Adani stock shares were bought at discounts ranging from 4.2% to 12.2% of Thursday’s closing price. Jain, who first eyed billionaire Gautam Adani’s conglomerate over five years ago, was quoted by Bloomberg in a statement, “…what nobody talked about, was these are phenomenal, irreplaceable assets. You have to be greedy when people are fearful.”
According to the report, Jain usually invests in 40-50 large-cap stocks in his international fund, allocating nearly 10 per cent of the portfolio to British American Tobacco and Philip Morris International.
The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a probe into the Adani-Hindenburg episode and set up an experts committee to be headed by its retired judge AM Sapre. It also sought a status report from SEBI on its ongoing investigation into the matter within two months.
(With inputs from agencies)