Individuals, not group, will respond to US charges: Adani group CFO

Will delay dollar bond till April-June, he says

The Gautam Adani group will hold back any dollar bonds until such time that named individuals of the conglomerate have made legal statements on the US Department of Justice (DOJ) indictment order, the group’s chief financial officer (CFO) Jugeshinder Singh said on Friday.

 

At a press interaction in Mumbai, Singh said since none of the group entities have been made party to the DOJ charges, they cannot make any legal representation, which will instead be made by “individuals”. He, however, added that there are certain fundamental factual discrepancies that will be highlighted, once legal approvals are i for it, over the next 10 days.

 

 

He also said, the group will not be revisiting the market with a dollar bond any time soon. “Not till the individuals file cases, so that the companies (raising funds) can make appropriate disclosures,” Singh said, adding: “We were only supposed to do one public issue. We will delay it till, say, April to June.”

 

Adani Green Energy (AGEL) had on Wednesday informed the exchanges that its directors — Gautam Adani (chairman), Sagar Adani (executive director), and Vneet Jaain (MD & CEO) — are facing alleged securities fraud conspiracy, alleged wire fraud conspiracy, and alleged securities fraud charges, and not those for violation of US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

 

“Individuals have their individual plans as to how they want to handle it. There's no way for us to join the case, because neither the DOJ nor the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said that some issuer made a mistake, or some company made a mistake,” Singh said.

 

On the repayment due in the near-term, Singh said about $3 billion is due across the entire portfolio, and all of it will be repaid mostly through bank refinancing.

 

On an upcoming debt maturing in March 2025, for which AGEL was planning a $600 million fundraise, Singh said: “The due is of $1.1 billion, of which, roughly about $200 million we have in cash. We have to raise $900 million, of which $500 million will come from private. So, the $400 million will be a banking offer from local banks, or any global bank with a rupee balance sheet.”

 

Asked whether banks have contacted the group, raising queries related to the DOJ order, Singh said: “Fundamentally, our banking partners understand we don't need their money, precisely because we don't need it, it's available to us.”

 

He said the DOJ order on November 21 took the group by surprise. “We never had any idea of that… Nothing of this sort happened. Because if we were paying that much amount of cash to someone, I would certainly know.”