At a Glance – Blink and You’ll Miss the Debt
Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL) is trading at ₹2,202, with a market capitalisation of ₹2.54 lakh crore, a P/E of 68.9, and debt north of ₹1.09 lakh crore. In the last three months, the stock is down 6.1%, while the last one year return is a majestic 0.45%—basically the equity market equivalent of “meh”.
But Q3 FY26 numbers suddenly woke everyone up. Quarterly revenue came in at ₹24,820 crore, PAT jumped to ₹5,727 crore, and profit growth printed a meme-worthy +2,044% YoY. Before you throw confetti—calm down. A ₹5,632 crore exceptional gain and ₹6,288 crore other income did a lot of heavy lifting.
ROCE is 9.45%, ROE 9.82%, interest coverage 1.79, and price-to-book 5.27x. This is not a cosy FMCG compounder. This is a leveraged infrastructure beast that eats capital for breakfast and promises dessert in the future.
So the big question: Is AEL a visionary empire-in-the-making or just India’s most ambitious balance sheet stress test? Let’s open the files.
Introduction – The Flagship That Never Sleeps
Adani Enterprises Ltd is the mothership of the Adani Group. Incorporated in 1993, AEL’s job has always been simple in theory and insane in execution: incubate large businesses, scale them aggressively, then spin them out.
Adani Ports, Adani Power, Adani Energy Solutions, Adani Green, Adani Wilmar—every major Adani listed entity was once chilling inside AEL like a startup in a billionaire’s garage.
Today, AEL is no longer just an incubator. It is:
- A coal trader
- A mine operator
- An airport owner
- A solar manufacturer
- A data centre developer
- A road builder
- A defence aspirant
- And occasionally, a walking case study on leverage
This is not diversification. This is economic cosplay at a national scale.
Business Model – WTF Do They Even Do?
Explaining AEL to a lazy investor is like explaining the Indian economy to a foreign tourist. Everything is connected, nothing is simple.
Integrated Resource Management (IRM)
This is the OG cash machine. AEL imports coal from Indonesia, Australia, and South Africa and sells it domestically. Volumes are massive, margins are thin, working capital is ugly—but cash keeps flowing.
In FY22, IRM contributed 70% of consolidated revenue and 39% of EBITDA. Translation: boring, dirty, but essential.
Mining (MDO & Commercial)
AEL operates coal and iron ore mines as a Developer & Operator (MDO) and also participates in commercial mining. These are long-term contracts with predictable volumes but heavy upfront capital.
Think of it as marriage—not exciting, but stable if you don’t mess up.
Solar PV Manufacturing
Adani Solar operates out of Mundra SEZ with 1.5 GW integrated capacity, scalable to 3.5 GW. This business sits under Adani New Industries Ltd (ANIL), which is currently the largest capex sink inside AEL.
This is where policy support, PLI incentives, and import substitution dreams live. Profits? Later.
Airports
AEL entered airports in 2019 and won six major airports—Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Jaipur, Guwahati, and Thiruvananthapuram—for 50 years. Add Navi Mumbai Airport, which became operational on 25 December 2025, and you have a long-duration annuity machine.
Airports are painful for the first decade and glorious for the next four. AEL is currently in the painful phase.
Roads, Data Centres & Water
- 14 road projects across
