In a mega financing exercise, the Adani Group is tying up funds of ₹60,000 crore with a clutch of Indian public and private sector banks led by State Bank of India, which will be invested in some of the group’s major infrastructure projects including green hydrogen, a copper smelter unit, power, transmission and road projects over a period of five years, sources said.
The consortium consists of five PSBs and three leading private sector banks, said the sources. Around 56 per cent of the loans will be from state-owned banks and the remaining from private lenders. There are also two finance institutions that lend to the power sector. The funds are being raised at around 9-11 per cent interest.
While a part of the funds has already been tied up, it will be finalised by May, said the sources. They will be spent over a period of 3-5 years.
SBI did not respond to a message seeking clarification on the financing.
Post the allegations of fraud and misgovernance by Hindenburg Research in January last year, this is the first major funding by Indian banks for the group that has usually approached international banks and overseas bond markets for most of its funding requirements.
Investment plan
Of the group’s outstanding debt of around ₹2.65-lakh crore, less than a third are dues to Indian lenders.
The lion’s share of the funds being raised will be used for the green hydrogen project, the first phase of which with a capacity of 1 million tonnes is expected to be ready by FY27. Around ₹24,000 crore has been earmarked to set up the green hydrogen ecosystem. An investment of around $50 billion over 10 years to produce 3 mt of hydrogen is envisaged.
Around ₹10,000 crore will be invested in road projects, ₹8000 crore in a $1.2-billion, 1-mt copper project, the first phase of which with a capacity of 5 lakh tonnes will start operations next month. Under the transport and logistics vertical, it has a road network of 5,000-lane km and intends to be among the top three players in the road business by 2025.
The remaining funds will go into the power and transmission assets, and a 2-mt coal-to-PVC project in Mundra, the first phase of which is to be commissioned in FY26.
Last year, group CFO Jugeshinder Singh had said that the group intended to spend around $84 billion over the next 10 years.