Shares of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (SEZ) rose 1.33 percent to hit a day's high of Rs 833 apiece on the NSE in Wednesday's trade after the company commenced cash tender offer for up to $195 million to partly prepay its near-term debt maturities.

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Adani Ports had started a buyback programme of some debt securities in April to prepay part of its near-term loans due in 2024.

The private port operator has started a tender offer to buy the outstanding 3.375 percent senior notes due in 2024 for up to $195 million in cash, billionaire Gautam Adani-led company said in a regulatory filing.

Bond buybacks allow companies to repurchase debt through tender offers to bondholders, enabling them to retire some or all of the securities ahead of their due date.

The purpose of the tender offer is to partly prepay the company’s near-term debt maturities. Following the successful completion of this tender offer, the company expects $325 million notes to remain outstanding, it said.

This is the Adani Ports' second tranche of the bond-purchase programme after it settled notes worth $130 million in May this year.

The company has said it plans to keep buying the outstanding notes over the next three quarters for cash. The ports and logistics company intends to fund the buyback from its cash reserves.

The tender offer will expire at 5 pm, New York time, on October 26, 2023, unless extended or earlier terminated, the company said.

The company has engaged Barclays Bank, DBS Bank, Emirates NBD Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Mizuho Securities (Singapore), MUFG Securities Asia Singapore Branch, SMBC Nikko Securities (Hong Kong) Limited, and Standard Chartered Bank to serve as dealer managers for the tender offer.

The announcement takes place just as the ports-to-power conglomerate seeks to refinance a $3.5 billion worth of debt taken out for an acquisition, having suffered a blow earlier this year. A report by US-based short seller Hindenburg Research had accused the group of improper use of offshore tax havens and stock manipulation. The conglomerate backed by Adani denied all allegations.

The Adani-led group's seven-listed stocks have lost over $100 billion in market value since the explosive report.

Having plunged as low as 85.8 cents on the dollar in February after Hindenburg’s allegations, the 2024 notes have recovered and were trading at 96.5 cents on the dollar on Wednesday, according to a Bloomberg report.

(Edited by : C H Unnikrishnan)

First Published:Sept 27, 2023 1:25 PM IST