Feb 1, 2023
Adani Bonds Hit Distressed Levels After Stock Sale Is Pulled
, Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) -- Bonds of firms related to Gautam Adani’s flagship Adani Enterprises Ltd. plunged to distressed levels after the company pulled a large stock offering, the latest fallout from a short-seller’s research report that accused the group of fraud.
Bonds issued by Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd. and Adani Green Energy Ltd. dropped the most in global secondary trading on Wednesday. Some bonds of both of the Adani companies currently yield more than 30% in secondary markets, way over the average investment grade yield of 4.96% and junk bond yield of 8.14%.
Adani Ports’ 3.375% bond due July 2024 tumbled more than 20 cents on the dollar to 69.75 cents in investment-grade secondary trading, according to Trace data. The loss was the biggest in global trading Wednesday, while at least four other Adani Ports bonds hit distressed levels, falling to 69 cents or lower.
Adani Green Energy’s 4.375% bond due Sept. 2024 declined more than 12 cents on the dollar to 66.75 cents in high-yield secondary trading, according to Trace data. One of Adani’s other green bonds fell 9 cents on the dollar, but did not yet reach distressed level.
Adani Enterprises decided not to go ahead with a follow-on public offer of shares, according to a statement on Wednesday. India’s Mint newspaper reported earlier that Adani was considering withdrawing the share sale, even though it was fully subscribed with backing from prominent Indian and Gulf investors.
Read: Adani Abruptly Pulls $2.4 Billion Offering as Crisis Mounts (1)
Adani Group companies have seen a wide selloff since short seller Hindenburg Research said it was shorting the conglomerate’s stocks and accused firms owned by Asia’s richest person of “brazen” market manipulation and accounting fraud.
Adani denied Hindenburg’s allegations over the weekend and sought to portray the short seller as mounting an attack on India itself. Hindenburg, in turn, said fraud cannot be “obfuscated by nationalism or a bloated response” that ignores the main allegations.
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