(Reuters) -India’s Adani Group is in talks with lenders to refinance up to $3.8 billion of a loan facility taken for its acquisition of Ambuja Cements Ltd last year, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The group is mulling whether to convert the original loan into debt with a longer maturity period and has started talking to banks individually about that plan, the report added.
The conglomerate, led by billionaire Gautam Adani, expects to conclude the process within four months and most of its existing lenders, including Barclays Plc, Deutsche Bank AG, Standard Chartered Plc and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc, are expected to participate, Bloomberg said.
However, the report cautioned that the deal is yet to be finalised and may not go ahead.
Adani Group, Deutsche Bank, Barclays and Standard Chartered declined to comment, while MUFG did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comments.
Ahmedabad, India-headquartered Adani last year acquired ACC Ltd and Ambuja in a $10.5 billion deal that was financed by bridge loans.
Indian business daily The Economic Times had reported in March that Adani was seeking to renegotiate terms of outstanding loans worth $4 billion taken last year to buy the cement firms.
The Adani group’s high debt levels were among the concerns that were flagged by U.S. short-seller Hindenburg in a report on Jan. 24.
The short-seller also said the conglomerate improperly used tax havens, among other allegations that wiped out over $100 billion in investor wealth in the Adani group’s listed entities.
The group has called the report baseless and has since garnered investor support and repaid debt.
Last month, a court-appointed panel said India’s markets watchdog had “drawn a blank” in investigations into suspected violations in overseas investments in the Adani group.
(Reporting by Shubhendu Deshmukh and Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil and Savio D’Souza)
