Adani repays $2.15 bn loan taken pledging shares, prepays another $500 mn loan for Ambuja cement

Embattled Adani Group said it has repaid loans aggregating USD 2.65 billion to complete a prepayment programme ahead of the March 31 deadline to cut overall leverage in an attempt to win back investor trust post a damning report of a US short seller.

In a statement, Adani group said it has repaid USD 2.15 billion of loans that were taken by pledging shares in the conglomerate's listed firms and also another USD 500 million in loans taken for the acquisition of Ambuja Cement.

The announcement comes within days of the group saying it has pre-paid Rs 7,374 crore (about USD 902 billion) loans that were taken pledging shares in four group companies. This has now been scaled up to USD 2.15 billion.

While Adani group has not detailed the source of money for repayment of loans, these came within days of the promoters selling minority stakes in four listed companies to US-based GQG Partners for Rs 15,446 crore.

"In continuation of promoters' commitment to repay the promoter leverage, Adani has completed full prepayment of margin linked share backed financing aggregating to USD 2.15 billion, well before the committed timeline of March 31, 2023," it said. "In addition to above, promoters have also prepaid a USD 500 million facility taken for Ambuja acquisition financing." This, it said, was in line with promoters' commitment to increase equity contribution and promoters have now infused USD 2.6 billion out of total acquisition value of USD 6.6 billion for Ambuja and ACC.

"The entire prepayment program of USD 2.65 billion has been completed within 6 weeks, which testifies the strong liquidity management and access to capital at sponsor level, supplementing the solid capital prudency adopted at all portfolio companies," the statement said.

The last announcement of prepayment of share-backed financing of Rs 7,374 crore on March 7 was followed by more shares belonging to companies of the group being pledged as security for loans taken by the group's flagship firm.