(FE)
Adani Enterprises Ltd. needs as much as A$3 billion ($2.3 billion) in debt financing to help start producing Australian coal from one of the world’s largest mines, after major banks from Sydney to New York said they don’t want to lend to polluting fossil-fuel projects.
The company is seeking A$2 billion to A$3 billion from lenders, including from banks in China, for the first phase of developing the Carmichael mine and a rail line in Australia’s northeastern state of Queensland, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. In addition, the firm plans to inject as much as A$3 billion in equity funding for the project, the person said, asking not to be identified because the details are private.
Lenders from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to three of China’s largest banks have excluded themselves from the project, prompting researcher BIS Oxford Economics to say Adani’s plans fail to stack up financially. The project has drawn ire from environmentalists who say it will endanger the health of the nation’s Great Barrier Reef, and Australia’s four largest banks have also distanced themselves.
