Hundreds of millions of dollars were invested in publicly traded Adani group stocks through Mauritius-based 'opaque' investment funds by partners of promoter family, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) alleged on Thursday. The fresh allegations by an organisation funded by likes of George Soros and Rockefeller Brothers Fund come months after a US short seller wiped away close to $150 billion in value of Adani group stocks with allegations of accounting fraud, stock price manipulation and improper use of tax havens by the ports-to-energy conglomerate run by billionaire Gautam Adani. Adani group has denied all allegations. Citing review of files from multiple tax havens and internal Adani Group emails, OCCRP said its investigation found at least two cases where the "mysterious" investors bought and sold Adani stock through such offshore structures.
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.
In a significant win for the Adani group, the Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to transfer the probe into allegations of stock price manipulation by the Indian corporate giant to a special investigation team or the CBI, saying market regulator SEBI was conducting a "comprehensive investigation" and its conduct "inspires confidence".
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget speech on Wednesday was marked by the usual thumping of benches by the ruling alliance members, but the loudest cheer was reserved for her announcement of income tax relief, which was welcomed by 'Modi, Modi' chants in Lok Sabha that also witnessed a few instances of protest by the Opposition.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi told party's Lok Sabha MPs to ignore comments of "middle- and low-rung" leaders of INDIA bloc parties and asserted that the Congress as the largest party in the opposition grouping is capable of addressing issues, sources said. The advice by Gandhi comes amid various leaders of the INDIA bloc weighing in on the leadership issue and TMC leaders aggressively pitching for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to head the opposition alliance.
However, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, UltraTech Cement, IndusInd Bank, Hindustan Unilever and ICICI Bank were the gainers.
Bajaj Finance, IndusInd Bank, State Bank of India, Maruti, Tata Motors, ITC, Tata Steel and Reliance Industries were also among the gainers. Nestle, NTPC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Power Grid and Titan were among the laggards.
DFC is the US government's development finance institution. Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ) in a statement said that the US fund will support the development of deepwater shipping container terminal in the Port of Colombo.
So far the government has been silent on the charges being levelled, even after the stock price rout. Perhaps it is hoping for the share price to settle so that the matter goes away, predicts Aakar Patel.
Ambuja Cements' announcement that it would acquire Hyderabad-based Penna Cement Industries could be the Adani Group company's first step for wider inorganic expansion, according to analysts.
'Granting the country's highest civilian honour to Prime Minister Modi was surprising as it indicated the government was going out of its way to have India as a close partner.'
A day after Adani Group's shares took a beating as Hindenburg Research made damaging allegations against it, the group on Thursday said it is examining legal options to take "punitive action" against the US activist investor for its "reckless" attempt to sabotage a share-sale at the conglomerate's flagship firm. "The maliciously mischievous, unresearched report published by Hindenburg Research on January 24, 2023 has adversely affected the Adani Group, our shareholders and investors. "The volatility in Indian stock markets created by the report is of great concern and has led to unwanted anguish for Indian citizens," the group's lead head Jatin Jalundhwala said in a statement.
US-based boutique investment firm GQG Partners and other investors have bought close to $1 billion worth of stocks in Adani group's two firms from the founding family in large block trades. The group's flagship Adani Enterprises Ltd saw 18 million shares, or 1.6 per cent, trade in a single block while the renewable energy firm Adani Green Energy saw a total 35.2 million shares, or 2.2 per cent, change hands, sources aware of the matter said.
Mukesh Ambani has raced ahead of Gautam Adani to become the richest Indian on a list of wealthiest people in the country. The 66-year-old chairman of the diversified Reliance Industries saw his wealth growing by a marginal 2 per cent to Rs 8.08 lakh crore, while Adani's fortune plummeted by 57 per cent to Rs 4.74 lakh crore, as per the 360 ONE Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2023. Anas Rahman Junaid, managing director and chief researcher at Hurun, attributed the decline in Adani's wealth to the Hindenburg report published in January. In January,
The political and ideological differences between the Congress and Shashi Tharoor is no longer a matter of whispers.
Uttar Pradesh Energy Minister Arvind Kumar Sharma was forced to address an event in the dark in his hometown Mau due to a power outage. The incident, which went viral on social media, led to action against four power department officials, including the suspension of two. Sharma was in Mau for a three-day event marking eight years of the BJP government in the state. The power failure lasted for hours, causing inconvenience to the locals and creating an awkward situation for the minister. While some BJP workers alleged that the outage was deliberate, locals praised Sharma for his composure and humility.
Billionaire Gautam Adani's group was on Thursday hit by fresh allegations of associates of the promoter family using Mauritius-based 'opaque' investment funds to secretly invest hundreds of millions of dollars to fuel the spectacular rise in group stocks during 2013 to 2018, a charge the conglomerate denied vehemently.
From the Sensex pack, IndusInd Bank dropped over 3.50 per cent, followed by Mahindra & Mahindra which declined more than 2 per cent. HCL Tech, Maruti, Infosys, Zomato, Power Grid, Adani Ports, Tata Consultancy Services and UltraTech Cement were also among the laggards. Kotak Mahindra Bank, Hindustan Unilever, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, Nestle and Bharti Airtel were among the gainers.
An expert committee, set up by the Supreme Court to probe allegations against the Adani group following a bombshell report from a US short seller, has members with potential conflict of interest, a fresh petition filed in the apex court on Monday said.
S&P Dow Jones has said it will remove Adani Group's flagship firm Adani Enterprises from sustainability indices with effect from February 7 following a media and stakeholder analysis triggered by allegations of accounting fraud. The move comes amid leading stock exchanges BSE and NSE putting three Adani Group companies -- Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone and Ambuja Cements -- under their short-term additional surveillance measure (ASM) framework. "Adani Enterprises will be removed from the Dow Jones sustainability indices following a media and stakeholder analysis triggered by allegations of accounting fraud," S&P Dow Jones Indices said in a statement.
A small Ahmedabad-based chartered accountancy firm, whose appointment was questioned by a US short seller in its scathing report against the conglomerate run by billionaire Gautam Adani, has resigned due to "pre-occupation", Adani Total Gas Ltd said. Hindenburg Research in its January 24 report that levelled allegations of fraud, stock manipulation and money laundering against the Adani group, had also raised the issue of the size and capability of the firms auditing the conglomerate. Adani group has repeatedly denied all allegations.
Tata Steel and Tata Motors dropped over 10 per cent each. Larsen & Toubro, HCL Technologies, Adani Ports, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Reliance Industries and Mahindra & Mahindra were the other big laggards.
From the Sensex firms, Tata Steel, Power Grid, NTPC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Reliance Industries and Adani Ports were among the biggest gainers. Asian Paints and Tata Consultancy Services were the only laggards.
From bhikshus of Ashokan 3rd century BC and medieval Sufis to Oxfam, Omidyar and Soros now, non-State actors have any real power only when they work in conjunction with a real State, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
From the Sensex pack, UltraTech Cement, Infosys, Bajaj Finserv, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, HCL Tech and Tata Consultancy Services were the biggest gainers. Zomato tanked nearly 6 per cent followed by IndusInd Bank which declined about 5 per cent. Adani Ports, Mahindra & Mahindra, Reliance Industries and Sun Pharma were also among the laggards.
Maharashtra minister Sudhir Mungantiwar on Thursday claimed that Gautam Adani prospered during the Congress regime in Gujarat and said one cannot become the prime minister by growing a 'beard', referring to Rahul Gandhi's remarks on the industrialist in Parliament.
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.
From the 30-share Sensex pack, Bharti Airtel, Mahindra & Mahindra, UltraTech Cement, Adani Ports, Reliance Industries, Larsen & Toubro, JSW Steel, Hindustan Unilever, Titan and Tata Motors were the biggest gainers. Power Grid, Nestle, State Bank of India and Infosys were the laggards.
Billionaire Gautam Adani-led group's renewable energy firm on Thursday announced plans to raise Rs 12,300 crore through a share sale to investors as the group continues to build on a comeback strategy to emerge out of allegations of fraud levelled by a US short-seller. Adani Green Energy Ltd in a stock exchange filing said its board has approved raising up to Rs 12,300 crore through an issue of equity shares by way of qualified institutional placement (QIP). The funds are intended to be used for meeting capital needs of the company's expansion plans.
Adani Group on Thursday said it has formed a 50:50 joint venture with Japanese conglomerate Kowa Group for sale of green hydrogen in Japan, Taiwan and Hawaii markets. Billionaire Gautam Adani-led conglomerate is investing up to $50 billion over the next 10 years in setting up a fully integrated green hydrogen ecosystem in India. This includes the production of 1 million tonne of green hydrogen in the initial phase which will be ramped up to 3 million tonne later.
Mr Adani has a fight on his hands. It is not a fight to the death, asserts T N Ninan.
The meeting lasted for nearly two hours, sources said.
All the BSE sectoral indices closed in the green. BSE Realty, Auto, Capital Goods and Industrials were lead gainers, jumping up to 5 per cent. IndusInd Bank was the lead gainer among Sensex shares, surging by 6.84 per cent. Tata Motors rallied 4.50 per cent. Larsen & Toubro, Axis Bank, Adani Ports, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and HCL Tech were also among the gainers. ITC and Hindustan Unilever were the only laggards.
Hectic buying in blue chip counters like Reliance Industries, IT and teck shares boosted market sentiment. State Bank of India, Tata Consultancy Services, Titan, ITC, Infosys, Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Industries and Bajaj Finance were the biggest gainers.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said that in the 'Hum Adani ke Hain Kaun (HAHK)' series under which the Congress posed questions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the party had asked him about his "favourite business group's links with the Chinese citizen Chang Chung-Ling (aka Lingo Chang) who has been a director in several Adani Group companies along with Vinod Adani and also made an appearance in the Panama Papers".
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the country's regulators are very experienced and are seized of the matter relating to the Adani Group crisis. The minister was replying to a question on the observations of the Supreme Court on public interest litigations (PILs) alleging exploitation of investors and "artificial crashing" of the Adani Group's stocks. "I will not disclose here what the government will be saying in the court...India's regulators are very, very experienced and they are experts in their domain.
Gautam Adani's alleged proximity to Narendra Modi may dent the latter's self-styled image of incorruptibility, points out Kanika Datta.
An expert committee appointed by the Supreme Court said it cannot conclude any regulatory failure around Adani Group's stock rallies, and that Sebi has "drawn a blank" in its probe into alleged violations in money flows from offshore entities into the conglomerate. But the six-member panel said there was an evidence of a build-up in short positions on Adani Group stocks ahead of the report of US-based short seller Hindenburg Research, and profiting from squaring off positions after prices crashed post-publication of the damning allegations. "At this stage, taking into account the explanations provided by Sebi, supported by empirical data, prima facie, it would not be possible for the committee to conclude that there has been a regulatory failure around the allegation of price manipulation," the panel said in the report submitted to the Supreme Court.
Dharavi resident advocate Sandip Katake alleged the project would be the world's biggest land scam.