The Sri Lankan government wants to see the deep-water container terminal project at the Colombo port go ahead and has no issue with the Adani-led conglomerate using its own resources to fund it. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The Sri Lankan government wants to see the deep-water container terminal project at the Colombo port go ahead and has no issue with the Adani-led conglomerate using its own resources to fund it, Ports Minister Bimal Rathnayaka has said.

In an exchange filing late on Tuesday, Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd said the project “is on track for commissioning by early next year” and added that the company will fund the ongoing project through “internal accruals”, aligning with its capital management strategy.

“It is a very important project for revenue generation for the port, we are keen to see it going ahead,” Mr. Rathnayaka told reporters during a tour of the port on Thursday.

He said the Adani group’s decision to reject funding from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) was its own and Sri Lanka had no issues with it.

The DFC, in November last year, agreed to provide a $553 million loan to support the development, construction, and operation of a deep-water container terminal called the Colombo West International Terminal (CWIT) at the Port of Colombo in Sri Lanka.

The CWIT is being developed by a consortium of Adani Ports, Sri Lankan conglomerate John Keells Holdings Plc, and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA).

DFC financing was part of the U.S. government’s broader efforts to counter China’s growing influence in the region and was seen as an endorsement of Adani’s ability to develop world-class infrastructure.

However, the loan process stalled after the DFC asked that the agreement between Adani and the SLPA be amended to align with their conditions, which then went under review by Sri Lanka’s Attorney General. As the project is nearing completion, Adani Ports, which holds 51 per cent of the venture, chose to proceed with the project without funding from the DFC, officials privy to the process had explained.

Mr. Rathnayaka, however, said the government is still opposed to another Adani project — the wind power project in the northeastern district of Mannar — as it was against Sri Lanka’s interests.

“The president and the government have informed the court our reasons to oppose it,’ Mr. Rathnayaka said, referring to fundamental rights petitions filed against it by environmentalists.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake in his campaign rallies for the September 21 Presidential Election had vowed to cancel Adani Green Energy’s wind power project in Mannar.

Indian banks are reviewing their Adani exposure and whether they need to tighten due diligence, eight bankers said on Thursday (November 28, 2024), after the group’s billionaire founder Gautam Adani was indicted by U.S. authorities over an alleged $265 million bribery scheme.

Adani Group’s listed stocks, which at one point saw as much as $34 billion wiped off their market value, meanwhile recovered ground as some partners and investors rallied behind it.

Also Read: Adanis knew of U.S. probe when they sold ‘bribe-linked assets’ to TotalEnergies, say prosecutors

State Bank of India will not stop lending to ongoing Adani projects that are nearing completion, two sources told Reuters, but will exercise caution when disbursing loans to ensure all terms and conditions are being met.

Bank of India, Union Bank, ICICI Bank , Canara Bank, IDBI Bank and RBL Bank, which have relatively smaller exposures to the Adani Group, are undertaking similar exercises, sources said.

A regulatory source aware of the development said from a banking system perspective that no entity was over-exposed to the Adani group and there was no cause for concern.

Earlier on Thursday, Israel said it wants Adani Group to continue to invest there, adding that the U.S. allegations were not “problematic” from its perspective.

Also Read: Adani to invest ₹1.3 lakh cr in FY25 across portfolio companies

“We wish Adani and all Indian companies continue to invest in Israel,” Israel’s Ambassador to India Reuven Azar told Reuters in an interview.

The Adani Group holds a 70% stake in Haifa port in northern Israel and is involved in projects with Israeli firms, including manufacturing military drones and commercial semiconductors.

Mr. Adani and seven others are accused by U.S. authorities of being part of a scheme to pay bribes to secure Indian power supply contracts. The Adani Group has denied the allegations.

The Indian ports-to-power conglomerate has also received public backing from Abu Dhabi’s International Holding, which maintained its outlook on investments in the group.

“Our partnership with the Adani Group reflects our confidence in their contributions to the green energy and sustainability sectors,” IHC said on Wednesday, adding that it “continues to evaluate relevant information and developments”.

IHC, which is one of Adani’s key foreign investors, boosted its stake in the group’s Adani Enterprises flagship to more than 5% last year after selling down investments in Adani Green Energy and Adani Energy Solutions.

Shares in Adani Green, the company at the centre of the bribery allegations, rose by 10% on Thursday, hitting the cap on gains in a single session for a second consecutive day, with Adani Energy also up the maximum 10%.

The total losses in the value of Adani Group’s 10 listed companies have narrowed to $14.5 billion from about $34 billion, the low reached on Tuesday after the U.S. indictments.

FALLOUT

Global investors say worries of a wider spillover from the Adani allegations will hurt sentiment in India, but not the long-term outlook, as they wager one of the world’s best-performing markets will get back on track next year.

Investors expect a stronger spotlight on governance and disclosure, and perhaps some volatility, but say the affair has not challenged the reasons they are in India in the first place – for exposure to a growing economy and a huge consumer market.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has not commented on the allegations against the Adani Group and has blocked opposition party demands for a debate on them.

Both houses of India’s parliament were suspended temporarily within minutes of opening on Thursday as opposition lawmakers disrupted proceedings for the third day over the issue.

Many opposition parties accuse Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of favouring Gautam Adani and blocking investigations against him, charges which both have denied.

The Adani Group, which is among India’s biggest business empires, has been under scrutiny since January 2023 short seller Hindenburg Research accused it of stock manipulation, which the group has denied, and questioned its high debt levels.

Adani Green said on Wednesday that Adani had been charged by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for alleged violations of securities law and faced potential fines but had not been charged under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

The civil action launched by the SEC runs in parallel to U.S. federal prosecutors’ indictment against Adani and others.

Repercussions from the indictment have mounted for the Adani Group over the past week, with credit ratings agencies cutting the outlook for some of the listed companies’ bonds.

French oil major TotalEnergies, said on Monday it would not make any more investments in the Adani Group until there was clarity over the allegations and consequences. Total has a 20% stake in Adani Green.

Kenya has scrapped a $2 billion procurement project that was to give Adani control of the country’s main airport and it shelved a 30-year, $736-million public-private partnership, signed by Adani Energy with its energy ministry in October.

Closer to home, Sri Lanka said it would investigate all Adani-related projects in the island nation, while Bangladesh is investigating power generation contracts signed under the previous prime minister, one of which was with Adani Power.

Adani Group Chairperson Gautam Adani. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

The U.S. State Department refused to comment on the disruptions in the Indian Parliament over the indictment of billionaire Gautam Adani in a U.S. court on charges of bribery.

“That is a law enforcement matter,” State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters at his daily news conference on Monday, November 26, 2024.

He was responding to a question about Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi demanding the immediate arrest of Adani. “Is this something you support, such as the arrest and investigations, charges against Adani” he was asked.

“I would defer to my colleagues at the Department of Justice to speak to it,” Mr. Miller said.

The U.S. authorities have indicted Gautam Adani and seven others including his nephew Sagar Adani, for being part of an alleged $265 million bribery scheme.

Also Read: Congress identifies key issues for Winter Session, will insist on JPC probe into Adani Group

Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha proceedings were adjourned for the day on Monday as opposition parties led by Gandhi’s Congress tried to raise the issue of Adani’s indictment.

Last week, a five-count criminal indictment was unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn charging Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Vneet Jaain, executives of an Indian renewable-energy company with conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities fraud for their roles in a multi-billion-dollar scheme.

This was done to obtain funds from U.S. investors and global financial institutions on the basis of false and misleading statements.

The indictment also charges Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, former executives of a renewable-energy company with securities that had traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

It charges Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra, former employees of a Canadian institutional investor, with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in connection with a bribery scheme also perpetrated by Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Jaain involving one of the world’s largest solar energy projects.

The indictment further alleged that Cabanes, Saurabh, Malhotra and Rupesh conspired to obstruct the grand jury, FBI and U.S. SEC investigations into the Bribery Scheme.

The Adani group has denied all charges in the US indictment, calling them baseless.