The Adani Group owns and operates seven airports in India, six of which have been transferred for 50 years under the privatisation project. Billionaire Gautam Adani-led Adani Group has invited bankers and lenders on a three-day trip next month to tour the companies’ infrastructure, and assets in a bid to restore their confidence nearly five months after US-based short seller Hindenburg Research accused the conglomerate of accounting fraud and stock price manipulation.
According to a report in Financial Times, Adani has offered lenders a chance to visit the new airport his group is building in Mumbai along with the port and energy facilities in Mundra from June 8 to 10.
The report added that guests have been invited to meet and dine with senior Adani Group executives at a five-star hotel near Mumbai’s international airport. They would also be taken on a guided tour to Mundra.
The initiative is the first trip of its kind hosted by Adani. Since the Hindenburg report, which wiped more than $110 billion from the market value of the group’s listed companies, the Adani group had to slow down its spending on new businesses and focus on cutting down its debt pile.
The ports-to-power conglomerate has recast its ambitions as well as prepaid some loans to assuage investors.
Adani’s rapid expansion in the past decade has been supported by loans from international lenders, such as Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered.
In the aftermath of the short seller’s report, analysts had predicted that the group might face difficulties to secure financing from global institutions because of corporate governance concerns.
Promoters in March sold stakes worth Rs 15,446 crore in four group companies to leading US-based global equity investment boutique GQG Partners.
Last week, two Adani Group companies, Adani Transmission Ltd and Adani Enterprises Ltd, announced plans to raise up to Rs 21,000 crore from the market. Adani Transmission said its board approved a plan to raise up to Rs 8,500 crore from the stock market. Adani Enterprises said in a filing to exchanges that its board had approved plans to raise up to Rs 12,500 crore.
Adani Transmission and Adani Enterprises, the flagship arm of Gautam Adani-led Adani Group, said in separate statements they planned to raise the funds via selling equity shares through qualified institutional placements or other permissible modes.
Adani Group's airport project
In July 2021, the Adani Group acquired a 74 per cent stake in Mumbai’s international airport by buying GVK Group’s 50.5 per cent stake and a 23.5 per cent stake from ACSA Global Ltd and Bid Services Division (Mauritius) Ltd (Bidvest). Following this, the group also committed to build and operate the Navi Mumbai airport.
The Adani Group had earlier planned to invest Rs 8,000 crore in its airports business over the next five years by utilising nearly 40 per cent of the gross proceeds from its Rs 20,000-crore follow-on public offering of new shares. But it had to withdraw the FPO in February 2023 due to the scathing report by Hindenburg.
The Adani Group owns and operates seven airports in India, six of which have been transferred for 50 years under the privatisation project.
The seven operational airports run by Adani Group account for 23.7 per cent passenger traffic in India as per December data from Airports Authority of India. In terms of freight carriage, Adani-run airports share stood at 30.7 per cent in December.