Adani Group repays share-backed financing worth ₹7,374 crore
The Hindu
A report last year found the Adani Group was "deeply overleveraged" as it used debt to expand into airports, data centres and cement as well as green energy
Embattled Adani Group on March 7 said it has repaid share-based financing of ₹7,374 crores (over $900 million) and will prepay all such remaining loans by the end of the month, as it looks to allay concerns over leverage and debt to win over investors.
The repayment will release pledge on shares of promoters in four group companies, it said in a statement, adding that together with repayments done earlier, the group has prepaid $2.016 billion of share-backed financing.
In September last year, CreditSights, a Fitch Group unit, said the group was "deeply overleveraged" as it used debt to expand an empire centred on ports and coal mining to include airports, data centres and cement as well as green energy.
In a January 24 report, U.S. short-seller Hindenburg Research flagged "substantial" debt levels at the group while alleging accounting fraud and use of offshore shell companies to inflate stock prices.
The Group has denied all Hindenburg allegations, calling them "malicious", "baseless" and a "calculated attack on India".
A month after the damning report by Hindenburg lopped off $135 billion in market value from Adani group's listed companies, the conglomerate is hoping to claw back the narrative by choosing slow and steady growth over the breakneck, mostly debt-fuelled, expansion spree of recent years.
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