(Adds context, investor views)
By Davide Barbuscia
NEW YORK, Feb 15 (Reuters) - India's Adani Group and two
of its main subsidiaries caught up in a short-selling storm in
recent weeks are to hold calls with bond investors on Feb. 16
and Feb. 21, according to a document seen by Reuters.
The planned calls follow a long-awaited credit report issued
by the Indian conglomerate earlier this week that said its
companies faced no material refinancing risk, or near-term
liquidity issues.
Adani's seven listed companies have together lost about $120
billion in market value since a Jan. 24 report by Hindenburg
Research alleged the conglomerate improperly used offshore tax
havens and manipulated stock, and flagged concerns over its high
debt levels.
Adani has rejected the concerns and denied any wrongdoing.
According to the document sent to investors the call on
Thursday for Adani Group will be attended by its Chief Financial
Officer (CFO) Jugeshinder Singh and head of Group Corporate
Finance Anupam Misra.
An Adani Green Energy call also on Thursday will involve its
CFO Phuntsok Wangyal, and an Adani Transmission call next week
will be attended by its CFO Rohit Soni and CFO of Adani
Electricity Kunjal Mehta.
The calls are organised by Barclays, BNP PARIBAS, DBS Bank
Ltd, Deutsche Bank, Emirates NBD Capital, ING, MUFG, Mizuho,
SMBC Nikko and Standard Chartered Bank, the document showed.
Adani did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Dollar-denominated bonds issued by Adani firms have dropped
sharply after the Hindenburg report although they have pared
some of those losses in recent days, with some investors
differentiating between governance concerns around the
conglomerate and the solvency of its operating companies.
"It looks (like) there are some corporate governance
issues on Adani’s group level, but risks are under control for
its operating companies, based on our analysis, and we are
looking at short-term trading opportunities of these bonds,"
said Sunny Jiang, head of fixed income investment with Haitong
International Asset Management Ltd.
"I don't think at this stage it's a question of ability to
pay, it's more that it raises the question of governance at the
company level, which at some point would need to be addressed,"
said Sergei Strigo, co-head of emerging markets fixed income at
Amundi, the French asset manager.
Rating agencies S&P Global and Moody's this month revised
their outlooks to negative from stable for some of the group's
companies, while index provider MSCI said it would cut the
weightings of some Adani companies in its stock indexes.
(Reporting by Davide Barbuscia, Marc Jones, Karin Strohecker,
Xie Yu, Jorgelina do Rosario; Editing by Caitlin Webber)
Messaging: marc.jones.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net Twitter
@marcjonesrtrs; caitlin.webber@thomsonreuters.com))
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