Adani Group Looks To Expand Lender Pool To Refinance $3.8B Loan

The Adani Group is reportedly in discussions to bring in at least five additional international banks as it looks to refinance $3.8 billion (₹31,200 crore) of loans taken to acquire cement assets.

What Happened? The majority of Adani Group’s existing lenders, including Barclays, Deutsche Bank, and Standard Chartered, are anticipated to participate in the refinancing, with the group due to begin meeting with potential new lenders, the Economic Times reported, citing sources.

As things stand, the existing lenders are comfortable with reworking the loan terms but have asked the group to bring more lenders into the consortium to avoid concentration risk, the sources told the business daily.

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The group is reportedly negotiating with two Taiwanese banks and a Malaysian bank, among others, the sources said. This would expand its pool of lenders and likely entail the extension of the payment tenure by three years.

The first repayment tranche of the loans is due in February 2024.

Bringing in new lenders would make it look more creditworthy as it is set to taps overseas bond markets later this year. It will be the conglomerate’s next major test after it was rocked by a scathing attack by US-based research firm Hindenburg Research, which in January accused the company of serious financial misconduct, though Adani Group has denied the claims.

It was previously reported that the Adani Group was considering converting the original facility into a loan with a longer term and expects to complete the deal within four months.

At the same time, Adani Group is also looking to convert another $1 billion (₹8,200 crore) mezzanine loan tranche, which has a 24-month maturity, into senior secured debt with an extended repayment schedule.

Taiwanese banks, along with other international lenders, have been increasingly active in the primary corporate loan market, as demonstrated by their participation in fundraising initiatives such as Reliance Industries and Reliance Jio Infocomm’s $2 billion (₹16,400 crore) round in April.

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