MUMBAI: One of India’s premier state-backed lenders is willing to consider lending more money to the beleaguered Adani Group, including for a project to remodel a slum that is among the world’s largest.
Bank of Baroda (BoB) will extend loans to the conglomerate if it meets the lender’s underwriting standards, said its CEO and MD Sanjiv Chadha, adding that he is not concerned about the market volatility around Adani stocks.
After certain banks' refusal to refinance a USD 500 million bridging loan due in March, the statements provide some backing for controversial billionaire Gautam Adani. That came after a report in January from short-seller Hindenburg Research sent the group’s assets tumbling.
More recently, investor sentiment received a boost when the company said it will address upcoming maturities. In an interview, Mr. Chadha SAID, "You have underwriting criteria and you keep to them in good times as well as terrible times." He opted not to go into further detail about the bank's entire exposure to the tycoon's commercial empire. He said, Bank of Baroda's exposure to the group is roughly one-fourth of what is allowed by the framework established by the central bank.
State Bank of India, the largest lender in the country by assets, disclosed that it has exposure to the Adani Group enterprises of roughly 270 billion rupees (USD3.3 billion).
Adani Group submitted a bid of 50.7 billion rupees for the project to renovate the slum last year, and Mr. Chadha said Bank of Baroda will take it into consideration when giving loans to the group for its Dharavi redevelopment project. “This is subject to an extended due diligence and depends upon concentration limits,” he said.
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