The Adani group is reportedly in talks with lenders to refinance a $3.8 billion loan facility taken to buy Holcim’s cement business in India last year.

A Bloomberg report said the conglomerate is looking at whether to convert the original loan into debt with a longer maturity period and has begun individual discussions with lenders. The conglomerate expects to conclude the process within four months

The refinancing exercise will be the first such major initiative by the group after the Hindenburg report in January which at one point of time had wiped out more than $ 150 billion from its market value. The group stocks have since recovered as Gautam Adani focussed on the reduction of debt, along with the fund infusion by GQG Partners.

The boutique investment firm – which had invested $1.87 billion in four Adani group companies in March, providing badly needed funds to the conglomerate — raised its stake in these companies last month. Reports said GQG had increased its stakes by about 10 per cent.

Last month, a Supreme Court-appointed panel said that based on the data from the Securities and Exchange Board of India, it did not see any ``evident pattern of manipulation’’ in the steep stock price rise of the Adani group earlier that can be attributed to any single entity or a group of connected entities.

The Bloomberg report said banks such as Barclays Plc, Deutsche Bank AG, Standard Chartered Plc and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc are in talks to participate in the refinancing deal. Some of the lenders have approached their respective international credit teams to approve the arrangement.

Swiss giant Holcim in September closed the sale of its cement business in India comprising Ambuja Cements and ACC to the Adani group for cash proceeds of $6.4 billion.

Earlier this month, the conglomerate said it has repaid loans aggregating $2.65 billion to complete a prepayment programme to reduce overall leverage.

It disclosed in a credit note that a full prepayment of $2.15 billion were made of loans that were taken by pledging shares in the group’s listed firms, while another $700 million were repaid for loans taken for the acquisition of Ambuja Cement.

According to the group, its pre-tax earnings or EBITDA of listed firms rose 36 per cent to Rs 57,219 crore in the fiscal ended March 31 2023 and there is no material refinancing risk and near-term liquidity requirement.