Adani-Hindenburg row: At Rs 27,000 cr, SBI's exposure to Adani Group is 0.9% of overall loan book, says chairman

State Bank of India (SBI) chairman Dinesh Khara has said that the bank’s total exposure to Adani Group is 0.9 per cent of the overall loan book, which is around Rs 27,000 crore, adding that the bank has no concerns so far regarding its exposure to the embattled Adani Group. He added that any further financing to the conglomerate's projects would be "evaluated on its own merit".

Khara, who was on a post-earnings call, said that the bank does not envisage the tumult-hit conglomerate facing any challenge to service its debt obligations.  
“Lending to Adani Group projects is with regard to ones having tangible assets and adequate cash flows,” Khara said on Friday. He added that the group has an excellent repayment record.

The Reserve Bank of India on Friday too clarified that India's "banking sector remains resilient and stable" as per its latest analysis.

"There have been media reports expressing concern about the exposures of Indian banks to a business conglomerate. As the regulator and supervisor, the RBI maintains a constant vigil on the banking sector and on individual banks with a view to maintain financial stability. The RBI has a Central Repository of Information on Large Credits (CRILC) database system where the banks report their exposure of Rs 5 crore and above which is used for monitoring purposes," said RBI in a statement.

Adani Group firms' stocks lost combined market capitalisation of over $100 billion in the past week after US short-seller Hindenburg Research published a report on the group’s activities, where it accused the conglomerate of “stock manipulation and accounting fraud”. 

Adani Group companies have lost around Rs 9 lakh crore m-cap in the last seven trading sessions till Friday. The total market capitalisation of the group tanked to Rs 10 lakh crore on February 3, 2023, from Rs 19.2 lakh crore as of January 24, the day Hindenburg Research made its report public.

Adani Power, Adani Total Gas, Adani Wilmar, Adani Green, Adani Transmission, Adani Ports, Adani Enterprises, Ambuja Cements, ACC, and NDTV are the ten listed Adani Group stocks and the shares have crashed up to 50 per cent since last Wednesday.

Hindenburg Research in its report accused the conglomerate of “brazen stock manipulation, money laundering, and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades”. The short seller claimed that the report was summed up after a two-year investigation. Defending itself, the Adani Group called Hindenburg's report "maliciously mischievous and unresearched", which, it said, adversely affected the Adani Group, its shareholders, and investors.

On Wednesday, Societe Generale said that the Indian banking sector's direct exposure to the Adani group was just 0.6 per cent. It said markets are "overpricing" the risk to Indian lenders of their exposure to the Adani Group and that a selloff in banking shares seemed overdone.

Earlier, Finance Secretary T V Somanathan said that there was no cause for concern for depositors, policyholders, or investors in any PSU banks or LIC amid the latest Adani group stocks rout. He told a news channel that the exposure of SBI and LIC in any company (Adani Group) is far below the level where it should be a concern for investors, Somanathan told the channel.

Also read: Adani group stocks: Average deliverable volumes climb manifold in 6 days; here’s what it means for investors