Adani Group Repays $2.15 Billion Loan Well Ahead Of 31 March Deadline

The Adani Group has managed to complete the full prepayment of margin-linked share-backed financing, with an aggregated value of $2.15 billion.

The group has made the payment well ahead of the anticipated deadline of 31 March.

The Adani group has issued a statement stating that they are committed to repaying the promoter leverage, which is a continuation of their previous commitment.

In addition to above, promoters have also prepaid $500 million facility taken for Ambuja acquisition financing, the statement said.

"This is in line with promoters’ commitment to increase equity contribution and promoters have now infused $2.6 billion out of total acquisition value of $6.6 billion for Ambuja and ACC," it added.

According to the statement, the entire prepayment programme of $2.65 billion has been completed within six weeks, which as per the Adani Group, testifies the strong liquidity management and access to capital at sponsor level, supplementing the solid capital prudency adopted at all portfolio companies.

At the beginning of this month, the group paid off loans worth Rs 7,374 crore. These loans were taken out against company shares as collateral and were due to mature in April 2025.

The prepayment was made as a result of the sale of stake worth Rs 15,000 crore in four Adani Group companies by promoters to GQG Partners.

The group made an announcement today, which coincided with reports that Gautam Adani may sell a partial stake in Ambuja Cements.

The purpose of this sale would be to raise around Rs 3,000 crore in order to pay off loans.

The group has undertaken several measures to prepay loans in order to alleviate investors' anxieties about the group's capacity to service debt, which was triggered by Hindenburg Research, a US-based short seller.

In January, a lengthy report was released by a short-seller that caused controversy. This report accused the group of various issues including corporate misgovernance, stock price manipulation, a high amount of debt, and negative cash flows, among other things.

The adverse event had caused a drastic decline in Adani stocks, leading to a consequential loss of the investors' assets. However, the stocks rallied in the aftermath of promoters' repayment of loans and the injection of capital by GQG Partners.