Adani Group Says Debt Has Consistently Fallen, Portfolio Firms Healthy
The portfolio of six Adani Group companies has reduced its net debt-to-Ebitda ratio from 7.6x to 3.2x in the last nine years.
The Adani Group has "consistently de-leveraged" and its portfolio companies are financially healthy, the ports-to-power conglomerate said rebutting a report that had termed it overleveraged.
The portfolio of six Adani Group companies has reduced its net debt-to-Ebitda ratio from 7.6x to 3.2x in the last nine years, the group said in response to CreditSights' Aug. 23 report. The group has a capital-management plan for all its portfolio companies, the response said.
The group has raised $16 billion in equity under a systematic capital management plan over the last three years as a combination of primary, secondary and committed equity from marquee investors like TotalEnergies, IHC, QIA, and Warburg Pincus, it said.
That resulted in the deleveraging of the promoter level debt, allowing the reduction in the promoter stake pledge in the listed companies, the Adani Group said.
The six listed companies are Adani Enterprises Ltd., Adani Green Energy Ltd., Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd., Adani Power Ltd., Adani Total Gas Ltd. and Adani Transmission Ltd.
"The leverage ratios of Adani Portfolio companies continue to be healthy and are in line with the industry benchmarks of the respective sectors," it said. "Over the last 10 years we have actively worked to improve our debt-metrics through our capital management strategy."
The group said that its Ebitda has grown 22% CAGR in the last nine years while the debt rose 11% CAGR during the period.
Of the Rs 28,500-crore gross debt of Adani Enterprises, the promoter company, Rs 20,000 crore is towards the trading business "which is fully backed by the regular business receivables", it said.
Excluding the working capital debt for the trading business, the group pegged the real gross leverage for the company at less than 2 times.
CreditSights had said the group’s aggressive expansion plan over the past few years has pressurised its credit metrics and cash flows. There was little evidence of equity capital injections into the group companies by the promoters to reduce leverage in the “stretched” balance sheets, it had said.
It had also said the group has "deep domestic and international bank relationships".
The Adani Group, however, pointed out that over the past three years, the portfolio has raised $32.3 billion capital, which is split into $8.3 billion in debt capital market issuances, $8 billion in go-to-market facilities and $16 billion in equity capital program. That, it said, is the largest programme by any group in India.
This has led to diversification of the long-term debt profile with long-term bonds accounting for nearly 50% of the total debt profile at the end of March 2022 compared to 16% in March 2016, according to the data cited in the response.
In diversifying the debt profile, the group has reduced the exposure of domestic public sector and private banks from 86% to 33% at the end of March 2022.
Disclaimer: Adani Enterprises is in the process of acquiring a 49% stake in Quintillion Business Media Ltd., the owner of BQ Prime.