Adani to refinance ACC, Ambuja debt worth $3.5 billion

The Adani group is in talks with several foreign banks to refinance $3.5 billion of bridge loans taken for the acquisition of Ambuja Cement and ACC this year.

The loans were taken by the Mauritius-based promoter entity Endeavour Trade and Investment, a special purpose vehicle that acquired Ambuja Cement’s stake from Swiss cement major Holcim in an all-cash transaction of $6.5 billion. The tenure of the refinanced loans will be extended to five years. Adani currently holds 63.15 per cent stake in Ambuja Cement and 56.69 per cent in ACC (of which 50.05 per cent stake is held through Ambuja Cement).

Soon after taking over the companies in September, the promoters agreed to infuse an additional ~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 Holcim stake acquisition transaction was financed by facilities aggregating to $4.5 billion availed from 14 international banks — reflecting the confidence of foreign banks on Indian companies.

Barclays Bank PLC, Deutsche Bank AG, and Standard Chartered Bank had acted as the original mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners to the Holcim transaction. In addition, BNP Paribas, Citibank, Emirates NBD Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank, ING Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo S.P.A, Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and Qatar National Bank acted as mandated lead arrangers for the transaction.

An Adani group spokesperson did not comment on the refinancing.