Adani woos bankers: Invites them for a trip to restore confidence

In a bid to restore their confidence in the Adani Group companies, Gautam Adani has invited bankers on a trip between June 8 and 10, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Thursday. The trip will include a visit to the new airport his conglomerate is building outside Mumbai as well as his port in Mundra, Gujarat.

The guests have been invited to meet the senior officials of the conglomerate and wine and dine at a five-star hotel near Mumbai's international airport.

The development comes as two of the group's companies -- Adani Transmission and Adani Enterprises -- are seeking to raise a combined $2.5 billion. The boards of the companies approved the plan last week.

Previously, Adani Enterprises had called off a $2.4 billion follow-on public offer (FPO) following the sharp sell-off in its shares owing to allegations in the report by US-based Hindenburg Research.

The invitation is also the first such development after the report was released in January. The conglomerate has in the past been supported by big banks like Standard Chartered, Barclays, and Deutsche Bank but mostly all of them have been reluctant to lend money since the allegations of misappropriation of funds surfaced in the report.

The report has till now wiped off $100 billion from the market value of the Adani Group's listed companies.

Moreover, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is also investigating the group over the allegations in the report. The Supreme Court has appointed a panel to assist Sebi. They were given two months to submit a report based on the findings of the probe. But earlier this week, Sebi was given an extension til August 14 to do so.