Adani Group's chief financial officer Jugeshinder Singh on Friday ruled out giving bribes to government officials to secure contracts, but said that if a large amount was indeed paid, he would most definitely know about it.
"We are sure, 100 per cent, that nothing of this sort happened. Because if you are paying that much amount of cash to someone, I would certainly know," the CFO said reporters here on the sidelines of a Trust Group event.
He said the allegations made in the US against Group chairman Gautam Adani and others including his nephew Sagar Adani is a case of "unique use of prosecutorial authority" and also made it clear that it is not an attack on the group. The people named in the allegations will respond and contest the charges at the proper forum, he added.
The basic attitude of the group is that whenever it makes an announced investment and growth plan, it is committed to all projects, implying that it will continue with all the projects.
He said no bank has contacted the group seeking a review following the allegations made in the US earlier this month, and added that everybody is willing to give the group whatever it needs to build the infrastructure.
".basically, our banking partners, they understand we don't need their money. Precisely because we don't need it, its available to us," he said.
The group pulled back an ongoing bond sale pending the clearing of allegations and added that it would proceed with a planned private placement of bonds. Otherwise, there were no pending issues, and the next anyways is supposed to come in after the FY25 results are out, he said.
The Group now has the ability to pay off 30 months of debt obligations, he said, adding that at no point does it go below 12 months.
Roughly about USD 3 billion of debt is coming up for repayment over the next 12 months, he said, exuding confidence that most of the banks will refinance it.
The group's aspiration is to raise as much debt as possible from the domestic markets in Indian rupees but it is the absence of the long tenor money needed for long gestation infrastructure projects which takes it to the US, he said.
However, the group has been trying to deepen the domestic markets' capability to support such projects, through retail issuances, and so on, he added.
He said the group has been denying allegations part by part after getting clearance from its legal team, and more substantial denials are due in the next week or ten days.
The Adani group has respect for the US laws and is cooperating, he said, adding that it does not want to litigate a case in public.
The CFO said he was with Gautam Adani in London when the allegations came into public and was surprised.
Asked if Andhra Pradesh has indeed cancelled a power purchase agreement as reported, the CFO said there has been no such event but quickly added that he will be delighted with such an eventuality because it will be able to sell power at a higher price.
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