New Delhi: It took less than one week for the Adani Group to initiate process for a public issue to raise an estimated Rs 5,000 crore after a trading ban on promoter Gautam Adani was lifted in the Ketan Parekh stock scam case on payment of consent fees.

The Gujarat-based Adani Group has filed draft prospectus for a public issue for its power company, Adani Power Limited (APL), on April 30, within a week after appellate authority SAT approved the consent term in relation to a two-year ban imposed by market regulator SEBI on billionaire Adani for involvement in the stock scam.

The Adani Group companies paid more than Rs 17 lakh as the consent fees and other charges, the Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) said, adding that Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) has also by its order dated April 24,2008 approved the consent terms and disposed of the cases.

The payment of consent fees led to lifting of the two- year ban on securities transaction imposed by SEBI on the promoters of the Adani Group and other companies in relation to the Ketan Parekh stock scam which hit the capital markets in 1999-2001.

The promoters of APL, the DRHP said, were prohibited by SEBI in May 2007 from directly or indirectly dealing in securities market "for a period of two years for aiding and abetting Ketan Parekh entities in manipulating the scrip of Adani Enterprises Limited".

The Adani Group entities, however, filed an appeal in the SAT against the securities trading ban and obtained a stay order.

The DRHP further said that although SAT through its interim order stayed the SEBI ban, the Adani Group approached the regulator for settlement of cases through a consent order and agreed to pay the charges.

SEBI agreed in principle to settle the cases against the promoters of Adani Enterprises Limited and directed Adani Agro Private Limited to pay Rs 10 lakhs and the rest of the entities Rs 7 lakh, each towards settlement charges and legal expenses within 15 days from the date of the consent letters.

The Adani Group paid the consent fees and other charges and within a week of getting the consent terms approved by the SAT, it filed a 432-page draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) for its power venture APL to issue 29.70 crore equity shares of Rs 10 at a premium (to be decided later).

The company proposes to utilise the proceeds of the issue to build six power projects totalling 9,000 MW at an estimated cost of about Rs 43,139 crore.

About 20 per cent of the project cost, it said, will be funded through equity, while the remaining would be raised as third party debts.

The equity contribution for the power projects has been kept at about Rs 5,600 crore.

In addition to the Ketan Parekh scam related cases, the DRHP said, the Adani Group promoters are also facing other charges pertaining to securities transaction.

SEBI, it added, had also filed a criminal complaint against Adani Enterprises Limited, Adani Properties Private Limited, Adani Agro Private Limited and Rajesh Adani (in his capacity as a trustee of Rajeshbhai S. Adani Family Trust) in relation to "execution of off-market deals in violation of provisions of the Securities Contract Regulation."

Source : PTI