Adani Ports and SEZ, India’s largest private Ports & Logistics company and the flagship division of the ports-to-power conglomerate Adani Group, paid SBI Mutual Funds’ due amount of Rs 1,500 crore on Monday (Feb 20) and will also pay another Rs 1,000 crore of commercial papers due in March (as per the payment scheme), a company spokesperson said.
”This part prepayment is from the existing cash balance and funds generated from the business operations,” the spokesperson said.
”This underscores the confidence which the market has placed on the prudent capital and liquidity management plan for the group.”
The conglomerate is hoping to claw back the narrative with payback and calm jittery investors and lenders who were spooked by allegations of accounting fraud and stock manipulations. Adani group has denied all the allegations.
APSEZ on February 8 said it will repay Rs 5,000 crore debt in year financial year starting April and the group would also repay a USD 500 million bridge loan due next month in bid to improve net debt to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization ratio to about 2.5 times from just over 3 times currently.
“Continuing with our growth journey, APSEZ is targeting FY24 EBITDA of Rs 14,500-15,000 Cr. Besides an estimated capital expenditure of INR 4,000-4,500 Cr, we are considering total loan repayment and prepayment of around Rs 5,000 Cr, which will significantly improve our Net Debt to EBITDA ratio and bring it closer to 2.5x by March 24” Karan Adani, the CEO of APSEZ said.
According to latest quarterly results, APSEZ had a gross debt of Rs 45,534 crore as of December 31, 2022 .Net debt, which is net of cash, stood at Rs 39,277 crore. Bulk of Adani Ports’ s debt is denominated in foreign borrowings.
APSEZ also announced that it is has concluded the acquisition of Haifa Port Company, IOTL, ICD Tumb, Ocean Sparkle, and Gangavaram Port, and is progressing well on transitioning its business model to a transport utility.
The company said that its port business will be bolstered in the coming year with the addition of 20 MMT capacity of Haifa Port Company in Israel, a new container terminal at Gangavaram (6 lakh TEU), additional liquid storage tanks at Katupalli, a 5 MMT LNG terminal at Dhamra port in Odisha that will be commissioned in April 2023, Karaikal Port (17.5 MMT), for which APSEZ has received the LoI, subject to NCLT approval.
APSEZ is currently the largest commercial ports operator in India accounting for nearly one-fourth of the cargo movement in the country. It has presence across 13 domestic ports in seven maritime states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Odisha.
(With inputs from PTI)