Gautam Adani said his company received loans on the back of its profitability.
Industrialist Gautam Adani has said his journey from a small business owner in Gujarat to the world's third-richest man was driven by "mehnat, mehnat and mehnat (hard work, hard work, hard work)". The only two other things that helped, he said, were, "Family's support and God's blessings."
In an exclusive interview with India TV, Mr Adani rebutted opposition leaders like Rahul Gandhi who have said he receives special favours from the government, including loans from state-run banks, saying the charges were unfounded.
"Any infra project requires equity and bank loan, which is normally 40:60 in nature. The borrowers are profiled by ratings. Adani group is the only business group in India whose companies have ratings that are equivalent to India's sovereign rating," he said.
"Independent rating agencies do complete financial analysis before giving the rating, and on this basis, banks give loans. Our group is so disciplined that in our 25-year-old history, we have not made even a day's delay in payment," he said.
"After 2013, we used to take 80 per cent of loans from Indian banks, and the interest rate then went up to 35 per cent. We went to the international market with a global rating. As you know, global markets do not give loans at the behest of anybody from India," Mr Adani said.
"Such allegations (about the Modi government asking banks to give loans) are baseless. Such allegations are levelled because of political compulsions, but it is a matter between borrowers and lenders," he said.
"There has been no difficulty on this score... In the last seven-eight years, our loans rose by 11 per cent, while our income rose by 24 per cent. It is because of our profitability that our ratings improved. Today, our profitability is more than our borrowings," the billionaire said.
Tracing his success over the last four decades, he said, "I got three big breaks in my life. First, in 1985 during Rajiv Gandhi's rule, when Exim policy allowed our company to become a global trading house. Second, in 1991, when PV Narasimha Rao and Dr Manmohan Singh opened up the economy, and we entered into public-private partnership mode."
"And third, during Narendra Modi's 12-year-long rule in Gujarat... I can say with pride that it was a very good experience. But I want to tell you that you can never get any personal help from Modi ji. You can speak to him about policies in the national interest, but when a policy is framed, it is for all, not only for the Adani group," Mr Adani said.
Disclaimer: New Delhi Television is a subsidiary of AMG Media Networks Limited, an Adani Group Company.