The Adani group is in talks with several foreign banks to refinance $3.5 billion in bridge loans taken for the acquisition of Ambuja Cement and ACC this year.
The loans were taken by Mauritius-based promoter Endeavor Trade and Investment, a special purpose vehicle that acquired Ambuja Cement’s stake from Swiss cement maker Holcim in a $6.5 billion all-cash transaction. The term of the refinanced loans will be extended to five years. Adani currently holds 63.15% stake in Ambuja Cement and 56.69% in ACC (of which 50.05% stake is held through Ambuja Cement).
Soon after taking over the companies in September, the promoters agreed to infuse an additional Rs 20,000 crore into the company to double its capacity. Ambuja Cement and ACC have a combined installed production capacity of 67.5 million tonnes per annum.
Bankers said the earlier transaction to acquire a stake in Holcim was financed by facilities totaling $4.5 billion drawn by 14 international banks – reflecting the confidence of foreign banks in Indian companies.
Barclays Bank PLC, Deutsche Bank AG and Standard Chartered Bank acted as initial authorized lead arrangers and bookrunners to the Holcim transaction. In addition, BNP Paribas, Citibank, Emirates NBD Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank, ING Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Qatar National Bank acted as authorized lead arrangers for the deal.
An Adani Group spokesman did not comment on the refinancing.
(With information from Bloomberg)