Willing to continue lending to Adani Group: Bank of Baroda CEO

One of India's major state-backed lenders is open to the idea of providing more money to the struggling Adani Group, even to fund a project to renovate one of the biggest slums in the world. Sanjiv Chadha, chief executive officer and managing director, stated that Bank of Baroda will offer loans to the company if it satisfies the lender's underwriting requirements and that he is not concerned about market volatility around Adani stocks.

The remarks provide some support for billionaire Gautam Adani, who is under fire after some banks refused to refinance a $500 million bridge loan that is due in a month. That followed a report by short-seller Hindenburg Research in January that sent the group's assets plunging. Investor sentiment recently improved after the company announced it would deal with impending maturities, the Economic Times reported.

“You have underwriting standards and you stick to them in good times as well as bad times,” Chadha said in an interview. He opted not to go into further detail about the bank's entire exposure to the tycoon's business empire.

According to Chadha earlier this month, the Bank of Baroda's exposure to the group is roughly one-fourth of what is allowed by the framework established by the central bank.

State Bank of India, the largest lender in the country by assets, claimed to have exposure to the Adani Group enterprises of roughly 270 billion rupees ($3.3 billion).

After Adani Group's 50.7 billion rupee bid for the project to renovate the slum last year, the Bank of Baroda would take into account lending to the organisation for its Dharavi rehabilitation project, according to Chadha.

“This is subject to an extended due diligence and depends upon concentration limits,” he said