Adani group sinks in trade again with Adani Ports being the biggest loser

All Adani group stocks trade in the red today, with Adani Ports being the biggest loser down about 7 percent at noon. The trigger was a report released by The Ken today, on claim that the Adani group has not made the $2.15 billion repayment in share-backed debt. The report states “Despite the Adani Group's claim of complete repayment of $2.15 billion in share-backed debt, regulatory filings show that banks have not released a significant portion of the promoters' shares held as collateral, indicating that the debt has not been fully paid off”.

CNBC-TV18 has reached out to the management of Adani group for comments, awaiting a revert.

“Over the last two months, the group has claimed to have repaid about $2.15 billion; it announced, on 12 March,  that  all  of  its  margin-linked  share-backed  debt  has  been  paid.  However, regulatory filings examined by The Ken show that banks have not yet released a large portion of its promoters’ shares, as they should have if the loans had indeed been completely repaid. As per Indian laws, disclosures on the release  of  shares  need  to  be  filed  with  stock  exchanges  by  lenders  within  two  working  days,  and  by promoters  within  seven  working  days.  But  neither  the  Adani  Group  nor  the  lenders  have  made  these disclosures to stock exchanges.” the report by The Ken said.

To add to it are the ongoing protests in Israel, where work at its major ports including the Haifa port has been ceased. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Monday that he would temporarily freeze his government’s controversial judicial overhaul plans following unprecedented demonstrations across the country and a general strike that paralyzed the Jewish nation. In January this year, the Adani-led group completed the purchase of Israel’s Haifa port for over a billion US dollars.

Also read: Mass protests in Israel: Thousands take to streets after Netanyahu fires defence minister

Since over two months, the Adani group continues to feel the heat of the Hindenburg report and since the start of this year, the group has lost over Rs 11 lakh crore in market cap, while Adani Ports, a Nifty 50 stock is down 28 percent losing Rs 48,000 crore.

Also, today marked the biggest single-day market cap erosion in over a month. The group’s dollar bond also opened lower with 12 of the 15 dollar bonds issued by the conglomerate falling as of 3pm in Hong Kong. According to Bloomberg, Adani Ports's debt due in February 2031 slipped 0.6 cents to its lowest level since early February whereas another note from the company due in July 2029 dropped by 0.4 cents.

With all the group stocks losing value in Tuesday’s trade, the market cap to the tune of Rs 50,000 has been wiped out – the most since February 22. Tuesday also marked the third day of fall, taking the cumulative loss to Rs 80,000 crore.

Interestingly, shares of Adani Ports plunged in intra-day trade to touch Rs 571 on NSE, lower than the price GQG Partners paid to buy a stake earlier this month. On March 02, GQG Partners had bought 8.86 crore shares of Adani Ports from promoter entity - S.B. Adani family trust at an average price of Rs 596.20 per piece. While the stock of Adani Enterprises is trading 13 percent higher to GQG buying price, Adani Green Energy and Adani Transmission are quoting 85 percent and 52 percent higher to GQG’s purchase price.

After plunging to Rs 6.82 lakh crore in February 27, the group had regained some of its lost ground following GQG’s investment in group companies. The group had gained market cap in 15 of the last 20 sessions. Moreover, the combined market cap of the group had surged nearly rupees three lakh crore from February lows.