The embattled Adani group saw the stocks of its listed companies clobbered again on Monday after unconfirmed reports emerged that the Gautam Adani-led conglomerate had decided to halve revenue targets for the next fiscal and slash fresh capital spending.

A Bloomberg report shook the market with the claim that the group had decided to cut the revenue growth targets for next year from 40 per cent to 15-20 per cent, signalling a significant cooling of its white-hot ambitions after group flagship Adani Enterprises was forced to pull its Rs 20,000- crore follow-on public offering earlier this month.

“The shift in policy shows how the ports-to-power conglomerate is focused on conserving cash, repaying debt and retrieving pledged shares as it scrambles to undo the damage from a scathing report by Hindenburg Research on January 24,” the report added.

The Adanis have not come out with a categorical denial of the Bloomberg report, deepening concerns in the market.

The group said each listed company had a “very healthy” balance sheet that was underpinned by strong corporate governance and secure assets.

The Adani Group companies “have strong cash flows, and our business plan is fully funded”, a group spokesperson said in response to the Bloomberg report that the group had halved its revenue growth target and planned to scale down fresh capital expenditure.

Each entity will review its own capital market strategy once the current market stabilises, the group said, adding it was “confident in the continued ability of our portfolio to deliver superior returns to shareholders”.

Adani Enterprises plunged by almost 10 per cent to a day’s low of Rs 1662.65 before clawing back some of the losses at the end of another torrid day of trading when sellers outnumbered buyers. The stock closed at Rs 1,717.55, down 7.03 per cent. Adani Port and SEZ tumbled by 7.93 per cent before closing at Rs 553.20, or down 5.25 per cent. Most of the other group companies ended with a loss of 5 per cent.

The Indian tycoon and his group have not been able to stem the market rout or soothe the concerns of overseas lenders who have raised margin calls on their loans to the group after US short-seller Hindenburg Research accused the group of accounting fraud and stock manipulation.

The Adanis have vehemently denied the Hindenburg report. The group has appointed US law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz to protect its legal interest but hasn’t yet carried through on its threat to launch a suit for damages against the US entity.

The Adani group can save almost $3 billion even if it defers capital spending by three months. The group has already started to pre-pay its stack of $1.8 billion worth of overseas loans. A tranche of $500 million is expected to be paid off in advance next month.

Sources said the group was likely to revert to its original plans once the market headwinds stabilise. The indications are that ongoing capital spending plans are unlikely to be affected.

Several Adani group companies had outlined their capital spending plans while announcing their third-quarter results recently. Adani Transmission had announced plans to spend Rs 5,000 crore while Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone had intended to spend around Rs 4,500 crore.

Adani Enterprises, which comes out with its third-quarter results on Tuesday, had disclosed in its red herring prospectus for the aborted follow-on public offering that capex would be undertaken for certain projects that form part of its green hydrogen ecosystem, improving airports facilities and construction of greenfield expressway, for which it earmarked Rs 10,869crore.

“The market cap of Adani group companies continued to fall, following the group’s revision of its revenue growth target to 15-20 per cent for the next fiscal year, which is a significant drop from the earlier target of 40 per cent,” Deepak Jasani, head of retail research at HDFC Securities, said.

In its response to the Hindenburg report, the Adani group had said that its companies “had repeatedly executed an industry-beating expansion plan over the past decade” -– an assertion that lends credence to the suspicions that the spectacular growth that the group has made coincides with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rise to power.

The group has claimed that its EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) has grown by a compounded annual growth rate of 22 per cent while debt has risen by only11 per cent CAGR during the same period.