Adani Ports to buy back bonds worth $650 million

Billionaire Gautam Adani’s group company Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd on Tuesday said it has commenced a tender offer to buy back bonds worth $650 million, which are due in 2020, the company said in a statement.

The bond repurchase programme will close on 24 July, the statement said. Adani Ports is buying back the $1,000 bonds for $1,009.5 apiece.

Adani Ports is also issuing new bonds of at least $650 million, proceeds from which will be used for the buyback of the bonds due in 2020.

“The Tender Offer is conditioned on the issuance of the New Notes in a principal amount of at least $650 million on terms and conditions satisfactory to the Company,” the statement said.

On Tuesday, rating agency Fitch Ratings said it has assigned the port operator’s new bond issuance of $650 million an expected rating of ‘BBB-(EXP)’ with a stable outlook.

“Historically, the issuer has experienced throughput resilience in economic cycles. Adani Ports has some flexibility in modifying tariffs and around 14% of its revenue in the financial year ended March 2019 (FY19) was associated with long-term revenue-guaranteed contracts. The company has spare capacity and can fund its large capex plan from operational cash flow. Its debt structure is corporate-like, with spread out bullet maturities,’ the rating agency said in a note.

The latest bond issuance and the bond repurchase programme at Adani Ports follow last month’s $750-million offshore bond sale, which aimed to repay existing loans and finance capital expenditure.

Adani Ports claims to be the country’s largest port developer and operator with a 21.2% market share of port capacity.

The company reported an 18% rise in its debt to $3.9 billion in fiscal 2019, compared with $3.3 billion a year ago, according to data disclosed by the company. The port operator’s profit for the year remained almost flat at $579 million in FY19, compared with $573 million in FY18.
Source: Live Mint