Sanjeev Chadha, CEO of Bank of Baroda (BOB), one of India's largest state-backed lenders, has said that his bank is ready to lend further to the troubled Adani Group. Chadha said that Bank of Baroda will provide an additional loan to the Adani group and its project to re-model the world's largest slum as well as for the rest of the project.
Sanjeev said that he is not worried about the ongoing volatility in the shares of Adani Group companies. Bank of Baroda will give loan to Adani Group if Adani Group meets the under-writing standards of the lenders. This statement of Sanjeev Chadha has come at a time when Adani Group has a bridge loan due of $500 million next month.
Sanjeev Chadha said, “There are underwriting standards for loans and it has to be followed in both good and bad times.” Sanjiv Chadha, however, declined to elaborate on the bank's overall exposure to Gautam Adani's business empire.
Chadha had said earlier this month that Bank of Baroda's exposure to the group was about a quarter of the permitted amount under the RBI's framework. On the other hand, in terms of assets, the country's largest lender State Bank of India had said that it has an exposure of about Rs 27.27 thousand crore in Adani Group companies.
Chadha said that Bank of Baroda would consider giving loan to Adani Group for Dharavi re-development project. The group had bid for Rs 50.7 billion (Rs 5,070 crore) last year for the slum re-modelling project and is ready to extend the bank loan for it.
Adani Group shares have seen a lot of ups and downs since the report of American short seller Hindenburg Research came out in January. Hindenburg has accused Adani Group companies of stock manipulation and accounting fraud.
