Adani Ports plans to issue $120 million rupee bond sale, first since 2021

By Saikat Das

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone is planning to issue as much as 10 billion rupees ($120 million) of bonds via private placement, which stands to become its first local currency sale in two years. 

The base size would be 5 billion rupees, with another 5 billion option for over subscription, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing a private matter.

Flagship Adani Enterprises Ltd. became the first of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani’s firms to sell local-currency bonds, since being targeted by US short seller Hindenburg Research in January — the group has denied the allegations. It raised 12.5 billion rupees in July. 

Adani Ports last sold rupee bonds in 2021, according to Bloomberg data.

A spokesperson for Adani didn’t immediately respond to Bloomberg’s emailed request for comment. 

An exchange filing by Adani Ports earlier this week said the company’s board had approved the issuance of as much as 50 billion rupees of private placement debt, with proceeds to be used for capital expenditure or refinancing existing liabilities and general corporate purposes. 

The planned sale of as much as 10 billion rupees of notes would be the first tranche of that overall issuance that was approved.