Srinagar: On Friday, the Jammu and Kashmir Bank, which has an exposure of nearly Rs 250 crore in the Adani Group, said the bank investors have nothing to worry about as its loans to the embattled business group are secured.
”Our loans to Adani Group are secured against the assets of the projects that were financed by JK Bank,” News agency PTI quoted JK Bank Deputy General Manager Nishikant Sharma as saying.
Quoting Sharma, the report said that JK Bank had given a loan of Rs 400 crore to Adani Group to finance two thermal power projects– one in Maharashtra and one in Mudra, Gujarat.
”When we financed the two projects 10 years ago, our exposure was Rs 400 crore, which has now come to Rs 240 crore to Rs 250 crore. The payments are regular and both the power projects are operational with power purchase agreements in place. The bank has the first charge on their sale. Not a single penny is overdue from the Adani account,” he told the news agency.
The report came as the shares of India’s Adani Enterprises sank drastically after a scathing report by Hindenburg Research triggered a rout in the conglomerate’s listed firms.
The report titled ‘Adani Group: How The World’s 3rd Richest Man Is Pulling The Largest Con In Corporate History’, questioned the accounting and corporate governance practices of Adani Group, and also raised the issue of heavy debt last week.
The report claimed that the Adani Group companies participated in a clear stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over decades. The report led shares of the Indian giant to go down.
The report was prepared after two years of research and investigation by this forensic financial research firm.
In an official tweet, Hindenburg Research earlier wrote, “Today we reveal the findings of our 2-year investigation, presenting evidence that the INR 17.8 trillion (U.S. $218 billion) Indian conglomerate Adani Group has engaged in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades.”
The research alleges that Gautam Adani has managed to amass a net worth of nearly $120 billion, largely through stock price appreciation over the last three years.
It also alleges that the group’s seven key listed companies have spiked at an average of 819 per cent over the entire period.
