By Dhwani Pandya, Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Shivam Patel
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI (Reuters) -The finance chief of India’s Adani Group on Friday rejected U.S. allegations that executives, including Chairman Gautam Adani, were part of a $265 million bribery scheme, while the Indian government said it has not received any U.S. request on the case.
U.S. authorities accused Adani, one of the world’s richest people, his nephew and executive director Sagar Adani as well as managing director of Adani Green, Vneet S. Jaain, of being part of a scheme to pay bribes of $265 million to secure Indian solar power supply contracts.
“We reject all of this strongly on behalf of the individuals,” Adani Group CFO Jugeshinder Singh told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Mumbai.
“We know for sure, 100%, that nothing of this sort happened. If we were paying that amount of cash to someone I would certainly know, so we know nothing happened,” Singh said.
The ports-to-power conglomerate has previously denied the charges, made earlier this month, as “baseless” and vowed to seek “all possible legal recourse”.
Singh said that the group would not be taking any action on the U.S. indictment, but that the accused individuals would clarify on the allegations over the next 10 days after seeking legal advice.
Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Vneet Jaain did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment on the CFO’s statement.
Singh also sought to allay concerns about any impact from the allegations to the group’s expansion plans. “No planned acquisition will be on hold… nothing will impact our investment plans in logistics and energy,” he said.
GOVERNMENT REACTION
India’s foreign ministry, in the country’s first official reaction to Adani’s indictment, said on Friday that bribery allegations against the billionaire was a legal issue between private companies and the U.S. Department of Justice and that New Delhi has not received any request on the case from Washington.
“This is a legal matter involving private firms and individuals and the U.S. Department of Justice,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters at a weekly media briefing. “There are established procedures and legal avenues in such cases which we believe would be followed.”
The Indian government was not informed in advance about the indictment and is not part of the “conversation” at this point, Jaiswal said.
The indictment has sparked political wrangling in India as many opposition parties accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of favouring Adani and blocking investigations against him in India, accusations both have denied.
While the government had not made any comment on the indictment so far, Modi’s BJP has said it had no reason to defend Adani and that the law will take its course.
FALLOUT
Adani Group shares lost about $34 billion in value after the U.S. indictments, but have recovered sharply this week, with total losses now at just over $7 billion.
Shares of Adani Green Energy (NS:), the company at the centre of the indictment, jumped nearly 22% on Friday.
The group has received public backing from Israel, where it has investments, and the Abu Dhabi’s International Holding, its key foreign investor.
The U.S. indictment has also had major ripple effects: At least one Indian state is reviewing its power deal with Adani, India’s parliament has been disrupted amid political uproar and TotalEnergies (EPA:) has decided it will not make any more investments in the group.
Adani Green also shelved a $600 million bond issue. CFO Singh said on Friday the U.S. bond sale would be delayed to as late as June and that the company will instead look for a private placement of $500 million around February.
Adani Group will repay roughly $3 billion in debt due over the next 12 months mainly through rupee borrowings, Singh added.
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.
Indian banks are also reviewing their exposure to the group and whether they need to tighten due diligence, bankers said on Thursday in the wake of the allegations.
