The Adani Group’s net debt has ballooned in FY24 and is expected to end the year at $26 billion, up about a fourth from last year, even as the group anticipates ending the year with an EBITDA in excess of $9.5 billion, driven by its core infrastructure businesses. 

At the end of FY23, the group debt was around $21 billion, after the frantic deleveraging by the group in the wake of the Hindenburg Research allegations in early 2023. 

Despite the increase in debt, the net debt to EBITDA ratio is seen in the region of 2x at the end of March, down from the 3.3x last March and 3.8x prior to Hindenburg. The EBITDA had already crossed $9 billion by the end of February, sources said. 

The power business has exceeded guidance, airports, green energy and all other businesses are doing well, while green hydrogen is expected to grow 60-70 per cent. 

Debt mix

Of the total debt, around 34 per cent are due to global bond issuances, 36 per cent vanilla debt and the remaining from domestic debt, and funds raised from private equity firms for group companies, sources said. 

The group has already raised $15-billion debt, of which $6 billion was from PE funds and the remaining $9 billion from global and domestic investors.

Adani Green Energy’s $400-million bond issuance — the first overseas bond issuance by the group since the allegations by Hindenburg last year — saw a strong response, being oversubscribed seven times, Bloomberg said. This testified to the return of investor confidence in the group, market sources said. 

For the group, about a fourth of its bond-holders are from Europe, a little over a third from Asia and about 31 per cent from North America. Bond-holders include Black Rock, AIA, Fidelity, Metlife, Goldman Sachs and Barings. 

Published on March 5, 2024