I owe my success to institutional reforms over 30 years: Gautam Adani

As both he and PM Modi are from the same state, it makes him the easy target of baseless allegations, says Adani

Adani Group’s success is due to policy and institutional reforms over the past three decades and “not because of any individual leader”, Chairman Gautam Adani said on Wednesday.

In an interview to India Today TV, Adani said he has been an easy target because both he and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are from the same state. “That makes me an easy target for such baseless allegations,” he said.

Adani Group runs diverse businesses such as power plants, ports, and airports. Adani, who has a personal networth of $150 billion, started his entrepreneurial journey with commodity trade. In fact, Adani started his export house when Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister. “But for Rajiv Gandhi, my journey as an entrepreneur would never have taken off,” he remarked.

Adani said the second push came during the prime ministership of P V Narasimha Rao.

He also benefited due to policy initiatives of then Gujarat chief minister Keshubhai Patel and that led to the group’s foray into Mundra port.

Modi’s election as chief minister of Gujarat in 2001 and subsequent policy reforms were a turning point in the group’s development.

“My professional success is not because of any individual leader but because of the policy and institutional reforms initiated by several leaders and governments during a long period of over three decades,” asserted Adani.

Last week it was announced that Adani Group would own a 65 per cent stake in NDTV, following its founders’ decision to sell the stake.

NDTV will continue to maintain its editorial independence, he affirmed.  “NDTV will be a credible, independent, global network with a clear lakshman rekha between management and editorial,” said Adani.

This year, the group acquired ACC and Ambuja Cements for around $10.5 billion, making it the second-largest cement company in India. But these acquisitions have raised questions about the group’s debt profile. “In the past nine years, our profit has been growing at twice the rate of debt, because of which our debt-to-earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation ratio has come down from 7.6 to 3.2. This is very healthy for a large group where most of the companies are in the infrastructure space with assured and predictable cash flow unlike in manufacturing,” he stated.

“Not only national but international rating agencies have rated us equivalent to India’s sovereign rating,” he said. “Nine years ago, of our total debt, 86 per cent was lending from Indian banks. But now the exposure of Indian banks to our total lending has reduced to 32 per cent. Nearly 50 per cent of our borrowing is through international bonds.” 

Expressing optimism over the state of the economy, Adani said India will add a trillion dollars to its GDP every 12-18 months within the next decade.  “A strong focus on capital expenditure, employment, social infrastructure, and social security (in the Union Budget) will help in facing the global headwinds of recession...”