Adani says $2.15 billion share-backed loans paid off; only operating company liabilities remain

Adani Group in a statement termed reports of the group not completing repayment of $2.15 billion share-backed debt “baseless and deliberately mischievous.”

Billionaire Gautam Adani-led promoter group has paid off all of the $2.15 billion loans taken pledging their shares in the conglomerate, and only debt at operating company level remains, Adani Group said seeking to assure investors of its ability to repay debt.

Adani Group in a statement termed reports of the group not completing repayment of $2.15 billion share-backed debt "baseless and deliberately mischievous." "Adani has completed full prepayment of margin linked share-backed financing aggregating to USD 2.15 billion (as was announced on March 12) and all corresponding shares pledged for those facilities have been released," it said.

While "all share-backed facilities availed by the promoters have been paid off", residual pledges pertain to debt taken by operating companies, it said.

"After such repayment, pledge positions for Adani Green, Adani Ports, Adani Transmission and Adani Enterprises have reduced substantially, and only residual share pledges corresponding to Operating Company (OpCo) facilities remained outstanding," it said.

OpCo debts are availed by respective companies and are part of their existing debt structure, and no new OpCo facilities have been availed since the January 24 damning report of a U.S. short-seller.

The statement came after reports cited exchange filings showing banks not releasing a large portion of the promoters' shares held as collateral to suggest that the debt hasn't been fully paid off.

Adani said OpCo secured various facilities based on the security of project assets, project cash flow and other such collaterals. "In addition to such security, listed shares have been provided as additional collateral for these OpCo liabilities for additional lender comfort. Such facilities do not have covenants like cash margin calls, share price linked put option, etc. which exist in share backed financing." The conglomerate said it had on February 6 stated that it had repaid $1.114 billion of loan, followed by prepayment of $134 million subsequently. On March 7, it had said ₹7,374 crore ($902 million) had been repaid. The consolidated number of $2.15 billion was released on March 12.