Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani speaks at the Forbes CEO Summit in Singapore on Tuesday, September 27, 2022. Getting rid of all fossil fuels is just not going to work for this country. Photograph: Edwin Koo/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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India’s Adani Group on Thursday denied bribery and fraud charges leveled by U.S. authorities against the group’s chairman Gautam Adani, calling all such accusations “baseless.”
Shares in companies owned by India’s Adani Group plunged after Gautam Adani, one of the world’s richest men, was indicted in a New York federal court over alleged bribery and fraud schemes. Shares in Adani Green Energy, the company at the center of the accusations, fell 17.9%.
Adani and several other defendants are accused of paying more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to secure solar supply contracts worth more than $2 billion in profits.
The company’s 62-year-old chairman, his nephew Sagar Adani and company executive Vneet Jaain are accused of misleading U.S. and international investors about the company’s compliance with anti-bribery and anti-corruption practices as they raised more than $3 billion to fund Energy contracts.
An Adani Group spokesman said the charges brought against Adani Green Energy’s directors by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission were “baseless and denied.”
“The Adani Group has always adhered to and is deeply committed to maintaining the highest standards of governance, transparency and regulatory compliance in all jurisdictions in which it operates. We assure our stakeholders, partners and employees that we are a law-abiding organization and fully comply with All laws,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
They added that “all possible legal recourse will be pursued” following the charges.
Shares of Adani investor GQG Partners also fell around 20% on Thursday.
A common question among investors in the wake of the allegations is how much influence Indian banks have over Adani Green Energy, Citi analysts said in a note on Thursday.
The energy company has borrowings of 630 billion rupees and accumulated asset charges equivalent to 650 billion rupees, Citi said, noting that lender-specific data may be less accurate when it comes to fund-based exposures.
After prosecution charges, Adani Green Energy Cancel Plans to raise approximately US$600 million through US dollar bonds.
– CNBC Boon Ping and Dan Mangan contributed to this story.
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