Adani Power, Adani Green, Adani Enterprises, Adani Energy: Adani stocks in focus today after bribery case

Adani stocks namely Adani Power Ltd, Adani Enterprises Ltd, Adani Green Energy Ltd, Adani Energy Solutions Ltd and Adani Total Gas Ltd, among others, are in focus on Thursday morning after US prosecutors indicted billionaire Gautam Adani and seven other senior business executives in connection with an alleged $250 million bribery scheme that they said was concealed from US investors.

The alleged scheme took place between 2020 and 2024, where the defendants agreed to pay more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain lucrative solar energy supply contracts, which were projected to generate more than $2 billion in profits after tax over an approximately 20-year period.

Adani group stocks have seen some selling of late, in line with the market fall. The flagship Adani Enterprises is down 6 per cent in the past one month against a 4.49 per cent drop in the BSE Sensex. Adani Ports fell 8.28 per cent, Adani Power plunged 14.29 per cent while Adani Energy Solutions tanked 16.53 per cent during the same period. Adani Green Energy plummeted 18.65 per cent. Adani Total Gas is down 8.36 per cent for the one-month period.

As per a release by United States Attorney’s Office, Gautam Adani and seven other business executives allegedly bribed the Indian government to finance lucrative contracts designed to benefit their businesses.

Adani and other defendants, the FBI Assistant Director in Charge suggested, also defrauded investors by raising capital on the basis of false statements about bribery and corruption, while still other defendants allegedly attempted to conceal the bribery conspiracy by obstructing the government’s investigation.

As per the release, a five-count criminal indictment was unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn charging Gautam S Adani, Sagar R Adani and Vneet S. 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 to obtain funds from US investors and global financial institutions on the basis of false and misleading statements.

The indictment also charged Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, former executives of a renewable-energy company with securities that had traded on the New York Stock Exchange (the U.S. Issuer), and 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 S. Adani, Sagar R. Adani and Vneet S. Jaain, involving one of the world’s largest solar energy projects.

“As alleged, the defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars and Gautam S. Adani, Sagar R. Adani and Vneet S. Jaain lied about the bribery scheme as they sought to raise capital from U.S. and international investors,” stated United States Attorney Peace.

“My Office is committed to rooting out corruption in the international marketplace and protecting investors from those who seek to enrich themselves at the expense of the integrity of our financial markets.”