Adani Group in talks with more lenders over acquisition loan

The Adani Group is reportedly in talks with at least five new international banks regarding its refinancing of US$3.8bn of loans taken for its acquisition of ACC Limited and Ambuja Cement in 2022. According to The Economic Times, the majority of the group’s existing lenders, including Standard Chartered, Barclays and Deutsche Bank, will also participate in the refinancing round. The group has reportedly begun discussions with two Taiwanese banks and a Malaysian bank among others to expand the consortium of lenders to syndicate the loan, which is expected to involve an extension of the payment tenor by three years.

"The meetings with lenders are currently underway and the group is targeting mid-July to stitch up a loan agreement with the consortium," a source told The Economic Times. “As things stand, the existing lenders are by and large comfortable to rework the terms of the loan but have asked the group to bring more lenders into the consortium to avoid concentration risk for the existing lenders.”

A second source said that bringing in new lenders “will also boost the group's credit worthiness perception, especially when the group taps overseas bond markets sometime later this year.” The first repayment tranche of the loan in question is due in February 2024.