Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) has paid a Rs 1,500- crore loan — in the form of a commercial paper (CP) — and will pay another Rs 1,000 crore due in March as it sends a signal of its ability to repay debt amid a stock meltdown following the Hindenburg Research report.

APSEZ paid SBI Mutual Funds Rs 1,500 crore that was due on Monday and will pay another Rs 1,000 crore of commercial papers due next month, a company spokesperson said.

“This part prepayment is from the existing cash balance and funds generated from the business operations,” the spokesperson said.

“This underscores the confidence which the market has placed on the prudent capital and liquidity management plan for the group.”

Reports say the group has no plans to roll over these short-ter m instruments and will pay them as they mature. CPs are usually issued to meet working capital requirements.

Apart from Adani Ports, Adani Enterprises has CPs of around Rs 1,500 crore due to mature over February-March and another Rs 2,000 crore that will be up for redemption from April-January 2024. These are likely to be settled when they mature.

Last week, the Adani group has released a credit note where it disclosed that among its listed firms, APSEZ has to repay around Rs 4,391-crore of debt in the January-March 2023 period.

The sum to be repaid stands at Rs 2,239 crore in the next fiscal which will rise to Rs 8,106 crore in 2024-25. The group had added that its cash flows will be sufficient to service the debt.

In the meantime, the group reportedly continues to speak with global bond investors to raise funds to pay off $500 million of overseas loans that are backed by the collateral of promoter shares in various group companies.

Adani had earlier announced plans to bring down its net debt to EBITDA to under 3 from current level of 3.2 times.

Recently, the group prepaid $1.114 billion or Rs 9,200 crore of loans taken against pledged shares as part of a move to prepay all share backed financing.

The loans were taken by pledging the shares of APSEZ, Adani Green Energy and Adani Transmission.

Image building

Apart from repaying debt, the group is beefing up its image: a Bloomberg report said it has roped in Kekst CNC as a global communications advisor.

The public relations firm headquartered in New York and Munich will help the group regain investor trust and confidence by stating the proper context not only on the Hindenburg allegations but other concerns that have revolved around the strength of its businesses, the report added.

The Adani group has also engaged American law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to fight back against the short seller’s claims, the Financial Times had earlier reported citing unnamed sources.

It had also reported that group chief Gautam Adani plans to appoint a financial controller to oversee his various trusts and privately held companies.