Adani Enterprises is to raise Rs 20,000 crore through a follow-on public offering (FPO). The company announced the news in a regulatory filing on Friday.

“The board of directors of the company at its meeting today (November 25, 2022) approved further public fundraising through the issue of new shares in the company of Rs 20,000 crore,” the company said. Each share has a par value of Rs 1. In addition, shareholder approval will be made by mail ballot.

This follows a 1,800% rise in Adani Enterprises shares over the past three years. Some Adani Group shares are up more than 2,000% over the same period. This makes Adani the third richest person on earth. However, the group has often been criticised for its high debt ratio and limited investor base.

According to Bloomberg, the fundraising will help the group deleverage and back the company’s dollar bonds. This is expected to improve further the group’s debt ratio, equity liquidity and investor base.

In 2020, another Adani billionaire, Mukesh Ambani, sold his stake in Reliance Industries to Meta and Alphabet, raising more than $27 billion.

Adani Enterprises is the flagship company of Adani Group, one of India’s most prominent business groups. The company’s business investments revolve around airport management, technology parks, roads, data centres and water infrastructure.

The company’s consolidated net profit rose 117% to Rs 460.94 crore in Q2FY23 from Rs 212.41 crore in Q2FY22. Net sales in the second quarter of FY23 soared 188.8% to Rs 38,175.23 crore from Rs 13,218.02 crore in the same period last year. Shares of Adani Enterprises fell 0.69% to Rs 3,895 on the BSE.