Traffic moves past the logo of the Adani Group installed at a roundabout on the ring road in Ahmedabad. File photo
| Photo Credit: REUTERS
Shares of Adani Group companies on Friday, October 13, 2023, came under selling pressure and were trading at losses with flagship Adani Enterprises Ltd tanking over 3% a day after Financial Times (FT) reported that the Gautam Adani led group was allegedly over-invoicing imported coal prices to enrich it and to make electricity consumers in India to pay more.
Also read: Hindenburg 2.0? George Soros-backed OCCRP said to be planning another ‘expose’
The Adani Group in a statement issued last week, much ahead of publication of this report had rejected the allegations.
The Financial Times in its report “The mystery of Adani coal imports that quietly doubled in value” said the Adani Group appeared to have “imported billions of dollars of coal at prices well above market value”. It had cited customs records reviewed by it.
“Records show that over the past two years, Adani used offshore intermediaries in Taiwan, Dubai and Singapore to import $5 billion worth coal at prices that were at times more than double the market price,” FT said in the report.
“One of these companies owned by a Taiwanese businessman who was recently named by FT as a substantial hidden shareholder in the Adani companies,” FT s Financial Times said.
Stating that it examined 30 shipments of coal from Indonesia to India by an Adani company over 32 months between 2019 and 2021, FT in its report said, “in all cases prices in import records were far higher than those in the corresponding export declarations.”
“During the journey, the value of the combined shipments unaccountably increased by over $70 million,” FT said.
The Adani Group is yet to respond to these fresh allegations. In the statement issued last week, the Group had said, “There is a renewed attempt by the Financial Times and its collaborators to rehash old and baseless allegations to tarnish the name and standing of the Adani Group. This is part of their extended campaign to advance vested interests under the guise of public interest.”
‘False narrative backed by George Soros’
“Continuing their relentless campaign, the next attack is being fronted by Dan McCrum of the Financial Times, who jointly with the OCCRP put out a false narrative against the Adani Group on 31 August 2023,” the statement said.
“The OCCRP is funded by George Soros, who has openly declared his hostility against the Adani Group. Having failed earlier, the FT is making another effort to financially destabilise the Adani Group by raking up an old, baseless allegation of over-invoicing of coal imports,” the statement added.
“The FT’s proposed story is based on the DRI’s General Alert Circular No.11/2016/CI dated 30 March 2016. The FT’s brazen agenda is exposed by the fact that they have singled out the Adani Group, while the DRI’s Circular, the raison d’être for the whole story, mentions as many as 40 importers including the Adani Group companies. This list not only includes some of India’s major private power generators like Reliance Infra, JSW Steels and Essar but also the state power generating companies of Karnataka, Gujarat, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, etc. and the NTPC and MSTC,” the statement further said.
The Financial Times in its report has also mentioned about this 2016 circular by DRI to back up its report.
