Adani Group returns to loan market as investor confidence improves

By Harry Suhartono

 

Billionaire Gautam Adani’s conglomerate is returning to the loan market to potentially raise more than $1 billion, the latest sign it’s slowly regaining the ability to raise funds six months after a US short seller caused a meltdown in its stocks and bonds. 

 

The Indian group is in talks with Barclays Plc, Deutsche Bank AG and Standard Chartered Plc to borrow between $600 million and $750 million to refinance the debt taken on to finance its purchase of Ambuja Cements Ltd., Bloomberg reported Thursday. Separately, unit Adani New Industries Ltd. has raised $394 million via a loan from Barclays and Deutsche Bank for a solar module project.

Adani Group has started making a comeback in fundraising in recent months following an improvement in its debt metrics. The latest efforts to secure loan deals indicate the conglomerate is further restoring investor confidence after short seller Hindenburg accused it of widespread corporate malfeasance in January. 

Adani has vehemently denied the allegations, and the company’s shares and bonds have recouped some losses from an initial selloff that at one point had wiped out more than $150 billion of the group’s market value. 

In June, AdaniConneX Pvt sold $213 million of senior debt to finance data center construction, while Adani Enterprises Ltd. raised 12.5 billion rupees ($153 million) through a local-currency bond sale this month.

The conglomerate is also in discussions with other lenders as it seeks to refinance as much as $3.8 billion of a loan facility taken for its Ambuja acquisition. If executed, the loan of as much as $750 million would be part of that broader refinancing. The talks haven’t yet concluded, and the amounts may still change.