NEW DELHI: Adani group on Sunday announced to have 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 it said to have returned USD 2.15 billion of loans that were taken by pledging shares in the conglomerate’s listed firms and another USD 500 million in loans taken for the acquisition of Ambuja Cement.
“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.
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.
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.