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New Delhi: Confused Adani Group on Sunday said it had repaid a USD 2.65 billion loan to meet a prepayment program ahead of a March 31 deadline, in an effort to win back investor confidence and roll back a damning report of a US short seller.
In a statement, the Adani group said it has repaid a loan of USD 2.15 billion that was taken by pledging shares in the group’s listed firms and also repaid USD 500 million of the loans taken for the acquisition . Ambuja Cement,
The announcement comes within days of the group saying it has made prepayments of Rs 7,374 crore (about USD 902 billion), which were taken by pledging shares in four group companies. It has now been increased to $2.15 billion.
While the Adani group did not give details of the source of money to repay the loan, it comes within days of promoters selling minority stake in four listed companies to US-based GQG Partners for Rs 15,446 crore.
“In continuation of the promoters’ commitment to repay promoters’ leverage, Adani has completed the full prepayment of the margin linked equity-backed financing of USD 2.15 billion, ahead of the committed deadline of March 31, 2023,” it said. Said. “In addition to the above, the promoters have also repaid the USD 500 million facility availed for financing the Ambuja acquisition.”
It added that this was in line with the promoters’ commitment to increase equity contribution and that the promoters have now invested USD 2.6 billion for Ambuja and ACC out of the total acquisition price of USD 6.6 billion.
“The entire prepayment program of USD 2.65 billion has been completed within 6 weeks, attesting to the strong liquidity management and access to capital at the sponsor level, which is a solid capital approach adopted across all portfolio companies,” the statement said. The complement of prudence.”
More shares belonging to group companies were pledged as security for loans taken by the group’s flagship firm after the final announcement of prepayment of share-backed financing of Rs 7,374 crore on March 7.
On March 8, the SBICap trustee had said in a notice to the stock exchanges that a further 0.99 per cent shares Adani Green Energy Ltd. was pledged “for the benefit of the lenders” to Adani Enterprises Ltd. additional 0.76 percent shares Adani Transmission Ltd was also pledged with banks, the trustee said.
With the latest pledge, the total shares in Adani Green Energy Ltd – the group’s renewable energy company – that were encumbered with SBI Cap stood at 2 per cent. In the case of Adani Transmission, it came down to 1.32 per cent.
The March 7 statement said the repayment of Rs 7,374 crore will issue pledges on promoters’ shares in four group companies, and together with the repayments made earlier, the group has prepaid USD 2.016 billion of share-backed financing. Have done
founding president Gautam Adani and his brother Rajesh on behalf of the SB Adani Family Trust, on March 2, bought shares in flagship incubating firm Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL), port company Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ), electricity transmitting firm Adani Transmission Limited (AEL). announced the sale. ) and renewable energy firm Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL).
That sale helped the group build narrative as US short seller Hindenburg Research issued a damning report on 24 January.
The 10 listed companies of the Adani group, which lost nearly US$135 billion in market value after the report, have seen share prices rise in consecutive trading sessions since then.
In September last year, CreditSights, a unit of the Fitch Group, said the group was “highly leveraged” as it expanded an empire focused on ports and coal mining to include airports, data centers and cement as well as green energy. used the loan to do so.
In a January 24 report, US short seller Hindenburg Research flagged “substantial” debt levels at the group to prop up stock prices, alleging accounting fraud and the use of offshore shell companies.
The group has denied all of Hindenburg’s allegations, calling them “malicious”, “baseless” and a “planned attack on India”.
It is now hoping to take back the narrative by choosing slow and steady growth over the breakneck, mostly debt-fuelled, expansion spree of recent years.
It has already canceled a Rs 7,000-crore coal plant purchase, decided not to bid for a stake in state-backed energy trading firm PTC, reined in expenses, repaid some debt and promised more Have done
Adani Group’s gross debt has doubled in the last four years. It has foreign currency bonds worth about USD 2 billion coming due for repayment in 2024.
The group’s gross debt is set to grow from Rs 1.11 lakh crore in 2019 to Rs 2.21 lakh crore in 2023, according to a presentation made to investors last month.
After adding cash, the net debt in 2023 was Rs 1.89 lakh crore.
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