Adani Group has sought to refute a media report raising questions about completion of repayment of $2.15 billion in share-backed debt, saying that it has completed the full prepayment of $2.15 billion loans, paying off all share backed facilities availed by the promoters. This has freed up substantial share pledges for listed entities Adani Green, Adani Ports, Adani Transmission, and Adani Enterprises, leaving only residual share pledges on outstanding loans availed by respective operating companies, Adani Group said in a late night statement.
The statement showed that between 31 December 2022 and now, the share pledges have reduced from 4.4% to 3.5% for Adani Green; from 17.3% to 4.7% for Adani Ports; from 6.6% to 3.8% for Adani Transmission; and from 2.7% to 0.6% for Adani Enterprises. “After such repayment… only residual share pledges corresponding to Operating Company (OpCo) facilities remained outstanding,” Adani Group said, adding: “OpCo facilities are availed by respective OpCo, and are part of their existing debt structure, and no new OpCo facilities have been availed since the short-seller report.”
Earlier, in February and March, Adani Group issued statements saying that the company has prepaid outstanding loans aggregating to $2.15 billion, releasing all promoter share pledges. However, this week, The Ken reported citing company disclosures that banks have not yet released a large portion of Adani Group shares, raising question whether the loans prepayment was actually completed.
Adani Group said that it has made all disclosures related to the repayment of loans and release of pledge securities as required under the rules and regulations – including the automatically reported system driven disclosures. In its statement, Adani appended the screenshots of the NSE website, showing the release of pledged shares for Adani Transmission
Adani Group’s market capitalisation has fallen sharply over the past two months, as a result of US-based short-seller Hindenburg research’s report on January 24, named ‘Adani Group: How The World’s 3rd Richest Man Is Pulling The Largest Con In Corporate History’. Adani Group stocks have faced significant turbulence and heightened volatility, since it was alleged that the Adani Group knowingly engaged in corporate fraud, stock market manipulation and improper usage of offshore funds.