Adani Group Cancels 600 Million Bond Deal Amid Bribery Charges
New Delhi: Adani Group on Thursday decided to cancel its $600 million bond offering after US prosecutors indicted Chairman Gautam Adani and others in a bribery case. Adani and seven others have been accused of bribing Indian officials to secure solar energy contracts.
The charges filed by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) led to a sharp decline in Adani’s US dollar bonds during Asian trading, with some dropping by as much as 15 cents.
As per the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Adani has been accused of “defrauding American investors and bribing officials”. Adani, his 30-year-old nephew Sagar Adani, executives from Adani Green Energy, and Cyril Cabanes, an executive from Azure Power Global Ltd, have been charged with “conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud, along with substantive securities fraud.”
Adani Green Energy Issues Statement
“The United States Department of Justice and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission have issued a criminal indictment and brought a civil complaint, respectively, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, against our Board members, Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani,” Adani Green said in an official statement.
“The United States Department of Justice have also included our Board member, Vneet Jaain, in such criminal indictment. In light of these developments, our subsidiaries have presently decided not to proceed with the proposed USD denominated bond offerings,” the statement added.
Meanwhile, the stocks of Adani Group plunged after reports the bribery allegations against Gautam Adani surfaced. Adani Energy Solutions fell by 20 per cent, hitting its lower circuit at Rs 697.70 on the BSE in the early trade.
Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone hit their 10 per cent lower circuits at Rs 2,538.20 and Rs 1,160.15, respectively.
Adani Total Gas also suffered a significant blow, declining by 18 per cent.