Indian equities declined on Friday, with the benchmark Nifty posting its worst weekly fall since September, as foreign investor sentiment remained weak amid tepid earnings growth and little progress on the India-US trade front.
The Adani Group reported its highest-ever trailing twelve-month EBITDA of Rs 90,572 crore, driven by strong performance in its core infrastructure and clean energy businesses, along with contributions from its emerging airports segment, the conglomerate said on Thursday. The group reported an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of Rs 90,572 crore for the period from July 2024 to June 2025, up from Rs 85,502 crore pre-tax profit in the trailing twelve months ending June 2024, it said in a statement.
Who else will take on the might of Microsoft, Google, and Amazon if not the Adanis, Ambanis, Birlas, or Tatas?, asks R Jagannathan.
The Adani Group plans to invest a record $15-20 billion across businesses over the next five years to chart out the next phase of growth, chairman Gautam Adani said on Tuesday as he touted the conglomerate's strong balance sheet and robust business to shrug off relentless scrutiny it faces. Record earnings from the businesses ranging from seaports to airports, renewable energy parks to data centres, cement to gas and electricity has built India's largest infrastructure group that not only exists just to serve the markets but to serve the nation's destiny, he said.
Gautam Adani, India's second-richest man, and seven others including his nephew Sagar have been charged with paying bribes to unidentified officials of state governments in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha to buy expensive solar power, potentially earning more than $2 billion profit over 20 years.
The government is developing ports across the country as centres for green hydrogen production and export, Sarbananda Sonowal, minister of ports, shipping and waterways (MoPSW) said on Tuesday. "Across the country, over 12 million tonnes of green hydrogen-based e-fuel capacity has been announced.
Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has strongly refuted allegations of bribery by the Adani Group for solar power purchases during his government. He claimed his name was not mentioned in a US court's indictment and that meetings with Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani were not unusual for a chief minister. Reddy said the power supply agreement was between the state's DISCOMs and SECI, with no third-party involvement. He also defended the deal, calling it 'historic' and highlighting the cost savings for the state. Meanwhile, former CM N Chandrababu Naidu has alleged irregularities in the deal and promised to act upon the alleged charges.
Adani Green Energy Ltd, the renewable energy arm of billionaire Gautam Adani's conglomerate, on Thursday scrapped a Rs 600 million bond issue after its promoter was charged in an alleged bribery case in the US. Hours before the US prosecutors charged Gautam Adani and associates with participating in a scheme to pay over Rs 250 million bribe to Indian officials in exchange for favourable terms for solar power contracts, the firm sold a 20-year green bond in the US-investment-grade market.
Billionaire Gautam Adani-led group's power transmission unit has raised $1 billion through a share sale, the first public equity raise by the conglomerate since a damning Hindenburg report, which wiped away billions in shareholder value. Adani Energy Solutions Ltd raised the funds through a qualified institutional placement (QIP) issue, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. The QIP, which opened on Tuesday, was oversubscribed three times with demand of about Rs 26,000 crore - making it the largest transaction in India's energy space.
Adani group opened a $1.2 billion copper plant, bought a port in Odisha, raised stakes in a cement company and stitched an alliance with rival Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries, all in a matter of one week in signs that the apples-to-airport conglomerate has shrugged off the Hindenburg effect and is back to rapid expansion spree. In the last one week, Adani group has through regulatory filings and press statements announced expansions and investments in its mainstay ports business, diversification into metal refining, fund infusion into a two-year-old cement foray and continuing progress in the commissioning of its mega solar project.
"Less than two week back, we faced a set of allegations from the US about compliance practices. This is not the first time we have faced such challenges. What I can tell you is that every attack makes us stronger," he said addressing the 51st Gems and Jewellery Award in Jaipur.
Adani group will invest more than $100 billion (around Rs 8,340 crore) in energy transition projects and manufacturing capability to produce every major component required for green energy generation, its chairman said on Wednesday. Besides building solar parks to produce electricity from sunlight and wind farms that do the same from wind, the conglomerate is building major facilities to manufacture electrolyzers for making green hydrogen, wind power turbines and solar panels.
French energy giant TotalEnergies SE's $300 million investment in clean energy projects of Adani Green Energy Ltd has taken the total investments poured in by global investors in India's largest renewable power producer to $1.63 billion or about Rs 14,000 crore, sources close to the company said. Last week, Total announced it will hold a 50 per cent stake in the new joint venture firm where Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) will hold the rest. The joint venture will hold a portfolio of 1,050 MW, including 300 MW of already operational capacity, 500 MW under construction and 250 MW under-development assets with a blend of solar and wind power.
Shares of Adani Green Energy (AGEL) continued their upward movement, hitting a new high of Rs 1,955.90, up 2.6 per cent on the BSE in Wednesday's intra-day trade in an otherwise weak market. The S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.77 per cent at 60,285 at 11:01 am. In the past 14 trading sessions, the stock of the renewable energy arm of the diversified Adani Group has zoomed 50 per cent from Rs 1,307.05 on December 30, 2021. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 4.3 per cent during the same period.
Adani Enterprises, which is launching India Inc's second-largest follow-on public offer worth Rs 20,000 crore next week, on Thursday said it is planning to enter the water segment as this is a key element of its core business of infrastructure. The group is into the entire gamut of infrastructure -- being its ports, airports, roads, expressways power generation & distribution, among others. In ports and airports, the group is the largest player in the private sector. Addressing media from Milan, group chief financial officer Jugeshinder Singh said the company has fixed the price band for the Rs 20,000-crore issue in the range of Rs 3,112-3,276 per share.
Mr Adani has a fight on his hands. It is not a fight to the death, asserts T N Ninan.
Given the hydrogen connection, it's ironic that Hindenburg Research released a long report, accusing the Adani group of financial manipulation, observes Devangshu Datta.
Before resigning as an auditor of an Adani Group firm, Deloitte had sought an independent external examination of allegations made by a US short-seller but the company said the allegations had no effect on financial statements and the reasons cited for quitting were not convincing to warrant such a move. In a 163-page filing with stock exchanges relating to Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP's resignation, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) said that in meetings with its leadership, Deloitte indicated concern over a lack of a wider audit role as auditors of other listed Adani companies. However, the firm conveyed to the auditor that it was not within its remit to recommend such appointments as other entities are "completely independent".
Against an offer of 4.55 crore shares of Adani Enterprises Ltd, only 4.7 lakh were subscribed, according to information available from the BSE. Adani Enterprises fell almost 20 per cent to below the offer price of its secondary sale as all the seven listed companies of the conglomerate took a beating in the aftermath of Hindenberg Reserach alleged that the group was "engaged in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades".
'I clearly recall how you immediately directed your administration to identify and allocate land, water, and other clearances in the shortest time possible.' 'That was the fastest decision-making process I have ever witnessed.'
Auditor Deloitte flagged three transactions, including recoveries from a contractor identified in the Hindenburg report, as it issued a qualified opinion on the accounts of Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone.
Reliance's big-bang entry across the solar ecosystem will cut dependence on Chinese imports drastically. And Ambani's repeated emphasis that RIL's new energy foray will be 'a truly global business' points that his group is playing not just for a share of the Indian pie but to be the OEM in the larger 5,000 GW global market by 2030, points out Shailesh Dobhal.
Gautambhai has shown that he has ability to withstand payment delays or vexatious court cases. That is where he is on a more comfortable wicket than many others. A revealing excerpt from R N Bhaskar's Gautam Adani: Reimagining Business in India and the World.
Adani Green Energy entered the list of top-10 most valued companies in terms of market capitalisation (m-cap) in the country on Monday after its stock price zoomed 16.3 per cent to hit a new high of Rs 2,701.6 on the BSE. Adani Green Energy's m-cap now stands at Rs 4.22 trillion, surpassing Bharti Airtel, which has an m-cap of Rs 4.16 trillion. With today's rally, the stock has zoomed about 25 per cent in the last two trading days after UAE's International Holding Company (IHC) agreed to invest Rs 3,850 crore in Adani Green Energy through preferential issue.
French oil and energy group Total has agreed to a $2.5 billion deal that includes buying a 20 per cent minority stake in Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) from Adani Group, as it builds up its presence in the renewable energy sector. The deal involves Paris-based Total getting a board seat in the largest solar energy developer in the world, as well as a 50 per cent stake in a 2.35 gigawatts portfolio of operating solar assets, the two firms said in statements. Total had in 2018, agreed to buy a 37.4 per cent stake in Adani Gas Ltd - the city gas distribution firm of the Adani Group, and a 50 per cent stake in the billionaire Gautam Adani-run ports-to-energy conglomerate's under-construction Dhamra LNG project in Odisha.
Billionaire Gautam Adani on Thursday said his logistics-to-energy conglomerate will invest $70 billion over the next decade to become the world's largest renewable energy company and produce world's cheapest hydrogen. Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL), the world's largest solar power developer, is targeting 45 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030 and will invest $20 billion to develop a 2 GW per year solar manufacturing capacity by 2022-23. Adani Transmission Ltd (ATL), India's largest private sector power transmission and retail distribution company, is looking to increase the share of renewable power procurement from the current 3 per cent to 30 per cent by FY 2023 and to 70 per cent by FY 2030.
'I believe that as we produce more, our cost will come down further. We will maintain our competitiveness.'
Import curbs on Chinese panels and modules may help, but low demand and capacity remain problem areas, says Shreya Jai.
The Adani group struck first coal from its Carmichael, Australia project on Thursday and will start shipping to its customers according to schedule. With this, the project will not only lift the economic prospects of the hitherto barren Australian outback, but also help Indian power plants to source cheap coal. The project had faced protests from a section of population with several banks even refusing to fund it. The group, however, went ahead with the project which included construction of a brand new railway line connecting an Australian port to the mine -- situated 300 kilometers away in Queensland.
Billionaire Gautam Adani's group is said to be planning a surprise entry into the race to acquire telecom spectrum, which will pitch it directly against Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio and telecom czar Sunil Bharti Mittal's Airtel, sources said. Applications for participating in the July 26 auction of airwaves, including those capable of providing fifth-generation or 5G telecom services such as ultra-high-speed internet connectivity, closed on Friday with at least four applications. Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea -- the three private players in the telecom sector -- applied, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.
Glass shortage in China and the rising prices of imported glass used in finished solar panels have already hit the cost of solar panel imports. The cost of solar modules imported by India have increased 22 per cent since June last year. India imports close to 90 per cent of its solar cells and modules, of which nearly 80 per cent is from China. Domestic solar equipment makers import glass panels and are the largest suppliers in China. The price of a solar module glass has increased 150 per cent in the past six months, revealed industry estimates.
When Vineet Mittal first got into solar power, sometime around 2009, and was planting solar panels in Gujarat, renewable energy looked like a sector ripe for startups. Renewables were clearly the future of energy, and the big boys - Mukesh Ambani's Reliance, Adani Group, and the Tatas - were focusing much more on coal and petroleum. Little did Mittal know that things were going to change drastically.
Weeks after confusion over three Mauritius-based funds whipsawing shares of Adani group firms, billionaire Gautam Adani on Monday said that "twisted narrative" seems to imply that companies have regulatory powers over their shareholders and can compel disclosures. Shares of port-to-energy group nosedived last month after reports that accounts of three of the six Mauritius-based funds that have invested most of their money in Adani group firms had been frozen by the national share depository. The three funds owned about $6 billion of shares across the conglomerate.
With projects worth Rs 1,28,000-cr, the group hopes to become one of the country's biggest industrial houses.
The sector may be overcrowded with a fair number of large players and the entry of the Adani Group through its two key acquisitions, followed by the takeover of majority stake in Sanghi Industries via Ambuja Cements. Since every major player is in expansion mode, there could be a capacity surplus and hence, price wars.
India's equity markets are on a roller-coaster ride, after delivering spectacular returns for two consecutive years - in 2020 and 2021. The benchmark National Stock Exchange's (NSE's) Nifty50 is down 1.5 per cent in the first nine months of the current calendar year 2022 (CY22) as foreign portfolio investors sold Indian stocks due to rising bond yields in the US and across global markets, including India. The sell-off in the Indian equity markets has, however, not been broad-based and largely limited to sectors facing earnings headwinds from rising interest rates, lower commodity and energy prices, and likely economic recession in advanced economies.
'I want us not to underestimate Indian voters. They can tell good work from bad.'
Energy's exit is a cautionary tale for several foreign investors in India as close to 16 Gw of solar and wind power projects languish without any power purchase agreement, 24 Gw without transmission connectivity and around 2 Gw unilaterally cancelled by project developers.
India's jugalbandhi with coal and clean energy is coming unstuck, neither achieving adequate renewable generation nor ensuring sufficient coal-fired power in the quest to become a $5-trillion economy. Six months have elapsed since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an ambitious climate agenda for India at COP26 at Glasgow. The net zero emissions target by 2070 is a distant one, but there are nearer-term plans to meet 50 per cent of energy demand with renewables by 2030 by increasing capacity to 450 Gw. A cursory look at the balance sheet of India's climate progress since November reveals ponderous progress towards meeting the renewables target even as the country is scrambling to expand coal-fired generation in the face of a power crisis.
'Both the people have a perspective and are people of stature and people of understanding'