Adani Green scraps $600 million bond sale soon after charged in bribery case in US

Adani Green halts bond offering amid bribery allegations

Hours after being indicted by the US Court, Adani Green Energy Ltd, the renewable energy arm of billionaire Gautam Adani‘s conglomerate, on Thursday scrapped its USD 600 million bond issue. The issue was over-subscribed three times. But following the allegations, the issue was scrapped.

The US Prosecutors charged Gautam Adani and associates with participating in a scheme to pay over USD 250 million in bribes 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. “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.[1]

“The United States Department of Justice has 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,” Adani Green Energy said in a stock exchange filing. The firm had tried to sell a similar offering a month ago but postponed the deal after some investors pushed back on pricing.

Last year, Adani Group scrapped a Rs. 20,000 crore Follow-on Public Offer (FPO) at its flagship firm, Adani Enterprises Ltd following damning allegations by US short-seller Hindenburg Research. That issue too was fully subscribed but the company decided to call it off and refund all investors. Hindenburg had alleged “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud” in January 2023 that led to the conglomerate seeing USD 150 billion wipeout in market value at its lowest point. Adani Group had denied all allegations made by Hindenburg.

Reference:

[1] US Court indicts Gautam Adani, nephew Sagar, and others for $265 million bribery in Indian Solar projects – Nov 21, 2024, PGurus.com

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