Why is Gautam Adani looking for funding for the Mumbai Airport debt?

Despite the controversy surrounding the takeover of a stake in MIAL by Gautam Adani, he is going ahead and trying to arrange funding to the tune of Rs.7,500 crore. The idea is to use the money to refinance the existing debt of MIAL, which is the Mumbai Airport operator. Currently, it is reported that Adani is negotiating with banks like Barclays, JP Morgan and Deutsche for the funding, although the structure is not too clear at this point.

This is largely intended to defray the total debt of Rs.8,000 crore in the books of MIAL. That is the first priority for Adani to make the entity more viable from a business perspective. Adani had bought 23.5% stake in MIAL from two South African companies, but GVK group of Hyderabad still has ownership in the MIAL project, The GVK group has been under financial stress and had struggled to infuse fresh funds or buy out the stake of other investors.