Adani Group payments on U.S. dollar bonds - source

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Adani Group payments on U.S. dollar bonds - source

NEW DELHI NEW YORK Reuters -- Adani Group entities made scheduled coupon payments on outstanding U.S. dollar-denominated bonds on Thursday, according to a bondholder and a source with direct knowledge of the Indian conglomerate's strategy.

The payments were made as the Adani Group, led by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, battles a rout in its stocks in India and its U.S. bonds after last week's critical report on its business practices by U.S. short-seller Hindenburg Research.

The two sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited paid coupons. According to the firm's strategy, Adani Transmission also processed bond payments on Thursday.

The credit report will be issued by Friday, which will address concerns raised by the Hindenburg report about its liquidity, according to the same source.

The Adani GroupAdani Group did not respond to a request for comment.

Interest payments of around $24 million were due on February 2 on three bonds issued by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone due to maturity in 2031, 2032 and 2041, according to Reuters calculations.

In a January 26 report, the brokerage CLSA said that the debt of the top five Adani Group companies -- Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, Adani Power, Adani Green and Adani Transmission -- was 2.1 trillion Indian rupees $25.60 billion -- just 38% of the total debt, while bonds CP commercial paper constitute 37%, according to the CLSA note.

Adani's fortune went up rapidly in recent years, but plunged in just a week after U.S. based Hindenburg published its critical research report on January 24.

Adani has said it always complied with all disclosures, but the repercussions have knocked $100 billion off the market value of the group's seven Indian-listed stocks.

On Thursday, the dollar bonds of the conglomerate fell further into losses after Adani Enterprises Ltd canceled a $2.5 billion share sale in a shock move.

Adani Green's bonds maturing in September 2024 led to the losses falling 11.69 cents to 60.56 cents, their lowest since issuance.

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, Adani Transmission and Adani Electricity Mumbai were trading lower as well as the U.S. dollar-denominated bonds.

Adani will issue a detailed credit report by tomorrow evening, which will address issues that there is no cash issue no other issue, the source with direct knowledge of the Adani group's thinking said.

Coupon payments for bonds will continue as normal, the source said, because they had nothing to do with share price falls or the group's current challenges.