Adani’s world tour seeks to win back debt investors’ faith

Signage atop the Adani Group headquarters in Ahmedabad, India, on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023. Bonds of the Indian billionaire’s flagship firm plunged to distressed levels in US trading, and the company abruptly pulled a record domestic stock offering after the Adani group suffered a $92 billion market crash. Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg

The Adani Group is kicking off a charm offensive with fixed-income investors in Asia this week in a bid to stem the fallout from shortseller Hindenburg Research’s allegations of accounting fraud and stock manipulation.

About a dozen global banks will help host the investor meetings at Singapore’s Capitol Kempinski hotel Monday. The conglomerate backed by billionaire Gautam Adani will then hold meetings in Hong Kong at the Barclays Plc office on Tuesday and Wednesday. Due to attend are group chief financial officer Jugeshinder Singh and corporate finance head Anupam Misra.

Adani’s ports-to-power empire is seeking to shore up support after US-based Hindenburg Research in January alleged malfeasance, wiping nearly $150 billion off its stock market valuation. Adani Group has repeatedly denied those claims.

Bonds issued by the group also plummeted, with the price of Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd.’s 2029 notes tumbling to a low of 72 cents on the dollar on Feb. 2 before recovering more recently to about 78 cents. A number of group firms face dollar debt repayments by the end of next year.

At least 200 financial institutions around the world — including the likes of BlackRock Inc., the world’s biggest asset manager — have had exposure to Adani Group’s $8 billion in dollar bonds, according to Bloomberg-compiled data.

The conglomerate has held calls with fixed-income investors on several occasions since Hindenburg’s report was published on Jan. 24. Executives labeled the publication “bogus” in a call with noteholders just a few days later, according to participants.