“GMR has refinanced the debt before the redemption and it helps them bring down the cost,” one of the sources said.
GMR Group has been raising funds and refinancing debt across its businesses, which include infrastructure, airports, and power generation. In October, it signed an agreement with a subsidiary of ADIA for a ₹6,300 crore investment in structured debt instruments of GMR Infra Enterprises.
A GMR spokesperson said GMR Enterprises (GEPL), the promoter entity of GMR Group, was refinancing all its external debt through structured debt instruments subscribed by ADIA, thereby consolidating multiple lenders into one capital provider -ADIA, extending the tenure from short or medium term to long term and substantially reducing interest costs and the collateral, or pledge of shares.
The company in a stock exchange filing on October 23 had said funds will be used to refinance all ‘loan against shares’ of the GMR Promoter Group, consolidating multiple lenders into a single long-term financing source.
This transaction sets the platform for sourcing long term, stable capital in future by GMR from a marquee global investor-ADIA, the spokesperson said without divulging the specifics of the transaction due to the confidentiality clauses signed with ADIA.While a Barclays spokesperson declined to comment, an ADIA spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment till press time on Wednesday.
