To further boost investor sentiments, embattled Indian conglomerate Adani Group has announced to have paid ₹7.37 crores in share-backed loans two years before its maturity.
The ₹7,374 crores financing, raised against stocks of Adani firms, was scheduled to mature in April 2025, the group said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Adani Group – whose business interests range from port to green energy – lost millions in valuation in a series of stock routs triggered by a damning report by a US-based activist research firm in January.
In a long report, New York-headquartered Hindenburg Research accused the conglomerate of stock manipulating and accounting fraud – charges categorically denied by the group. The report had expressed concerns over the group raising loans against shares.
In a statement, the Ahmedabad-based group business group said that it prepaid loans to “various international banks and Indian financial institutions”.
With this pre-payment, 155 million shares, representing 11.8 per cent of promoters’ holding, will be released by the lenders. It will free up 31 million shares of Adani Enterprises Limited, 36 million shares of Adani Transmission Limited, and 11 million shares of Adani Green Energy Limited.
“Along with the repayments done earlier in the month of February, Adani has prepaid USD 2,016 million of share-backed financing, which is consistent with promoters’ commitment to prepay all share-backed financing before 31 March 2023,” the statement said.
The Hindenburg report, published on January 24, led to a free fall in stock prices of Adani firms, wiping out half of the wealth of its chairman Gautam Adani.
Opposition parties lapped up the matter and stalled the budget session of parliament to press for their demand for a high-level investigation against the Adani Group.
The conglomerate called the report a “calculated attack on India”, and is reportedly working with a top US firm to sue Hindenburg.
Last week, the Supreme Court constituted an independent committee to investigate if there were regulatory failures related to allegations against the Adani Group.
Its six-member panel will investigate “regulatory failure in dealing with the alleged contravention of laws pertaining to the securities market in relation to the Adani Group”.
The panel will also come up with an “overall assessment of the situation including the relevant causal factors which have led to the volatility in the securities market in the recent past”.
Gautam Adani has welcomed the court order and hoped that the trust will come out.