Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) has launched a tender offer for bonds worth $130 million, which the company will use to partly pre-pay near-term debt maturities.

This is the first buyback by an Adani Group company since the January 24 report by short-seller Hindenburg Research shaved off half of the group’s market capitalisation.

The firm intends to fund the buyback of its July 2024 bonds from its cash reserves. The purpose of the tender offer is to partly pre-pay the company’s near-term debt maturities and to convey its comfortable liquidity position, APSEZ said in a stock exchange update.

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Managers for the offer are Barclays Bank, DBS Bank, Emirates NBD Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank, MUFG Securities Asia, Singapore branch, SMBC Nikko Securities (Hong Kong), and Standard Chartered Bank.

Following the completion of this offer, APSEZ expects $520 million notes to remain outstanding. The company intends to purchase $130 million of the outstanding notes in each of the next four quarters. The company may choose to either accelerate or defer this plan, subject to its own liquidity position and market conditions, it said.

The subject of the terms, including the pricing, will be separately fixed for each of the tranches, it added.

The group, controlled by Gautam Adani, has been trying to improve its financial position and reduce debt to regain investors’ faith following the Hindenburg Research report. The short-seller, which published findings of a two-year-long investigation, has accused the group of market manipulation and accounting malpractices. Adani Group has refuted all the allegations.

Earlier this month, the group, which held roadshows in Singapore, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, informed investors that its Ebitda for FY23 will be about ₹61,200 crore, of which 7% will come in from Adani Cement (Ambuja Cements and ACC).

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In March, Adani Group pre-paid a total of $2.65 billion in debt, which included a margin-linked share-backed financing and another $500 million taken for acquisition of Holcim Group’s Indian assets, ahead of the March 31 deadline set earlier. The pre-payment was in line with the promoters’ commitment to increase equity contribution, it had said.

The promoters had also infused $2.6 billion into Ambuja Cements and ACC, the cement firms the group acquired in September last year for $6.4 billion in cash.