Adani's links to foreign firms


Daniel Hoffman and Katia Dolmadjian
Thu, February 9, 2023 


The troubled business empire of Indian tycoon Gautam Adani has links to foreign firms in a broad range of sectors including banking, energy and food.

Adani's conglomerate has taken a massive hit in the stock market since short-seller US investment group Hindenburg Research accused it of accounting fraud, which the company denies.

Asset management analysts Bernstein said Monday it expects "more volatility in India" this year in the wake of Adani's market turbulence rather than foreign contagion, but that could change if foreign partners feel they need to cut ties, even at a steep loss.

- Financial partners -

The Adani empire is made up of several listed firms, the main one being Adani Enterprises Limited.

The top shareholder is the Adani family with 64 percent of the shares. Only some 20 percent of shares are regularly traded.

Top Wall Street names such as Vanguard, BlackRock and Goldman Sachs, directly or via subsidiaries, could be found among the top 20 Adani Enterprises shareholders until recently.

They have not indicated if they still hold their shares or have unloaded them.

Norway's $1.2 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, said Thursday it has completely divested its assets in the Indian conglomerate.

The fund, which is set up to put the country's oil and gas revenues to work, held some $200 million worth of shares in the group at the end of 2022.

- Commercial partners -

Singaporean agribusiness giant Wilmar International, owned by the family of billionaire Robert Kuok, holds an equal stake in the joint venture Adani Wilmar Limited (AWL), a listed company that specialises in kitchen staples.

"We will continue to support our Indian associate, Adani Wilmar Limited (AWL)," a Wilmar spokesman told AFP.

US retailing giant Walmart said it did not have any particular information to convey concerning its Indian subsidiary Flipkart, an online retailer which in 2021 concluded a commercial partnership with Adani Logistics.

Data centre operator EdgeConneX created the AdaniConnex joint venture with Adani Entreprises in 2021.

"The Hindenburg accusations have had no effect on AdaniConneX, our joint venture with Adani," an EdgeConnex spokesman told to AFP. "We continue to focus on investing, building, and operating data centres."

- Industrial partners -

Earlier this month French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies described its $3.1-billion exposure to Adani as "limited".

It owns half of the joint venture Adani Total Private Limited, which provides for oil and gas exploration, as well as half of AGEL23, a joint venture with Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL) for the operation of three gigawatts of solar projects.

But TotalEnergies said this week it was suspending a green hydrogen project with Adani. Last year it announced plans to acquire a 25-percent stake in Adani New Industries Limited for the production and commercialisation of green hydrogen in India.

French shipping giant CMA CGM said its activities were "continuing normally".

The world's number three shipper signed in 2017 a 15-year contract to operate a new container terminal in the port of Mundra, India's largest.

In January, a consortium led by Adani won the tender for the privatisation of Israel's port of Haifa via a local joint venture with logistics firm Gadot Group.

bur-dho-kd/rl/lth