India's Adani Group completes $2.65 billion deleveraging program

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indian ports-to-power conglomerate Adani Group has completed a $2.65 billion deleveraging program, it said on Monday in its credit update for fiscal 2023.

The group's shares have lost more than $110 billion in value since January, when U.S. short-seller Hindenburg Research alleged it had indulged in stock manipulation and improper use of tax havens, and flagged concerns over its debt levels.

Adani Group at the time called the report baseless and termed the allegations "unsubstantiated speculations".

In the statement issued by the group on Monday, it reiterated that it had made a full prepayment of margin-linked share-backed financing of $2.15 billion, as announced in March.

Its promoters had also prepaid $700 million in debt taken for its acquisition of Ambuja Cement along with interest payments of $203 million, and completed a secondary $1.87 billion transaction with GQG Partners for four key listed entities, it said.

The portfolio's combined net debt to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) ratio improved to 3.27 in fiscal 2023 from 3.81 the preceding year, the group said in the statement on Monday.

The run rate EBITDA similarly improved to 2.8x from the earlier 3.16x, while the debt service cover ratio has improved to 2.20x during fiscal 2023 from 1.4x in the year before.

"Domestic and international banks continue to show confidence across businesses by disbursing new debt and rolling over existing lines," the company said in its credit update.

"Affirmation of credit ratings has also facilitated access to credit facilities," it added.

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon; Writing by Sakshi Dayal; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Jan Harvey)