Indian banks may be finding no issues with their exposure to the Adani Group and may be even willing to lend more, but the Group is reducing its exposure to Indian banks.

In an interaction on Tuesday with institutional investors, Adani Group’s CFO Jugeshinder Singh said that while foreign banks took ‘credit decisions,’ Indian banks took ‘name decisions’.

Also read: Timely cashflows critical for Adani Group to repay debt, retain credit rating

Of the total group debt, over half is foreign debt in the form of overseas bonds and loans taken from foreign entities, a fifth is from foreign banks and a fourth is from domestic banks. Singh pegged the group’s gross debt at $30 billion.

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Many Indian banks, including State Bank of India, have publicly avowed that they had no issues with the Adani Group loan exposure. The Group has been plunged into a crisis following allegations of irregularities by US-based short seller Hindenberg Research. A couple of days back Bank of Baroda’s CEO had said that it was willing to keep lending to the Adani Group.

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Sources said that some Indian banks had expressed reluctance to lend more to Adani Group companies, inducing a cash crunch in some projects. While it could not be ascertained what exactly Singh meant by ‘name decisions’, throughout the crisis, foreign banks have been supportive of the Group in terms of continued funding.

businessline had reported on February 7, that foreign banks, including Standard Chartered Bank and Citibank, had no plans to reduce their exposure to the group or stop their credit facilities. Foreign banks’ debt exposure to the Adani Group has been slowly creeping up over the years.

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