Adani Group raises ₹19,235 crore debt since Hindenburg report, ET Infra

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NEW DELHI: The Adani Group, in a presentation shared with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), said that it had raised fresh debt of Rs 19,235 crore in the two months following the Hindenburg report, taking gross outstanding debt to Rs 2,27,248 crore. However, given the cash balances of Rs 40,351 crore, the group’s net debt was Rs 1,86,897 crore — nearly 17% more than the previous year.

The numbers show that the Adani Group’s investment pipeline remains strong, funded by fresh debt even as group companies repaid $2. 1 billion of marginlinked, share-backed financing and another $500-million debt for acquiring Ambuja Cement.

Sources said that Adani would use part of the freshdebt for the Navi Mumbai airport, which comes under Adani Enterprises. The group also plans to raise fresh funding for its Mundra Petrochem project under Adani Enterprises.

The group, in its presentation on the end-March financial position submitted this week, said that domestic and international banks continue to show confidence across businesses by disbursing new debt and rolling over existinglines. It further added that, following the credit rating affirmations, the company has access to credit facilities, and international and domestic debt capital market programmes are ongoing.

The infrastructure group had earlier said it was pre-paying debt to reduce leverage. The presentation said the group’s combined net debt/ ebitda improved to 3. 27X in FY23 from 3. 81X a year earlier despite the additional bor-rowing. Also, the debt service cover improved to 2. 02X in FY23 from 1. 98X in FY22.

Most of the fresh debt raised is in the energy sector. The companies include Adani Power (Rs 8,121 crore) followed by Adani Enterprises (Rs 4,248 crore), Adani Green Energy (Rs 3,348 crore), Adani Total Gas (Rs 609 crore) and Adani Ports (Rs 987 crore).

Long-term and working capital loans account for two-thirds of the debt raised, while the remaining were short-term loans, buyer’s credit and commercial paper. Half of this additional debt (51%) came from domestic PSU banks. Another 20% was raised from non-banking finance companies and domestic finance institutions, while foreign banks funded another 13%. Of the remaining, 10 % came from private banks and 6% fromdebt capital markets.