Adani group touts cash pile to ease Hindenburg-fueled concerns

Adani Group said it has enough cash to cover more than 30 months of debt payments, in a move aimed at alleviating concerns about its liquidity risk as the Indian conglomerate contemplates fresh fundraising for its flagship unit.

Billionaire Gautam Adani’s group said its cash balance accounted for 24.8% of gross debt as of the end of the first quarter of the fiscal year that began in April, up from 17.7% a year earlier, according to its earnings release Monday.

The port-to-power conglomerate’s Ebitda, or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, rose 33% to about 225.70 billion rupees ($2.7 billion) in the quarter ended June 30.

The stronger financial performance comes at a time when the conglomerate’s flagship firm Adani Enterprises Ltd. is considering raising around 100 billion rupees to 120 billion rupees through a share sale, following the recent success by its energy transmission unit in raising $1 billion.

The completion of such financing and signs of improved cash flows would help Adani Group recover investor confidence after US short-seller Hindenburg Research accused it of widespread fraud and corporate malfeasance in early 2023, leading to a rout that at one point erased more than $150 billion from its market value. Adani has repeatedly denied these claims.

Adani Group’s gross debt stood at 2.41 trillion rupees at the end of the quarter.