On November 19, a day prior to the outbreak of the news, the market cap of all Adani Group stocks stood at Rs 14.30 lakh crore, which fell by 2.24 lakh crore on November 21 when the development came to light. Since then it has been on a downhill, though the severity of the fall is less.
On November 22, the total market cap fell by just Rs 10,306 crore over the previous session to Rs 11.96 lakh crore while on Monday it fell by Rs 10,436 crore over Friday’s figure to Rs 11.85 lakh crore.
Of the 11 stocks, 5 ended with declines viz Adani Green Energy (9.2%), Adani Energy Solutions (-4.15%), NDTV (-2%), Adani Power (-2.27 %) and Adani Total Gas (ATG, -2.15%). Meanwhile, the gainers were Adani Enterprises (1.67%), Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ 2.32%), Adani Wilmar (0.92%), ACC (2.65%), Ambuja Cements (1.23%) and Sanghi Industries (0.98%). The biggest fall in Adani Green Energy shares was after TotalEnergies SE announced that it would not make any new financial contribution as part of its investments into the Adani Group companies amid a US federal indictment against Chairman Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar R Adani.
“Until such time when the accusations against the Adani group individuals and their consequences have been clarified, TotalEnergies will not make any new financial contribution as part of its investments in the Adani group of companies,” the company said in a statement.
TotalEnergies SE holds a total stake of 19.75% in Adani Green Energy through Totalenergies Solar Wind Indian Ocean Ltd (3.55%) and Totalenergies Renewables Indian Ocean Ltd (16.20%).
About $250 million Adani bribery case
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has charged billionaire Gautam Adani, founder and chairman of the Adani Group, with allegedly defrauding American investors and bribing officials.
In the indictment, the US agency has also named several states including Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, J&K, Tamil Nadu, and Chhattisgarh.
“Following the promise of bribe to Indian government officials, in or about and between July 2021 and February 2022, electricity distribution companies for the states and regions of Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh entered into PSAs with SECI under the manufacturing linked project,” the US SEC said in the indictment.
It said Sagar R Adani used his phone to track the bribe notes that identified the per megawatt rate of the bribe given to government officials.
The SEC alleged that the bribery scheme was orchestrated to enable renewable energy companies Adani Green and Azure Power to capitalise on a multi-billion-dollar solar energy project awarded by the Indian government.
During the alleged scheme, Adani Green raised more than $ 175 million from US investors and Azure Power’s stock was traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the SEC said in a statement.
In response to recent allegations from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against directors of Adani Green, the Adani Group has strongly denied the claims. A spokesperson for the company stated that the accusations are baseless and reaffirmed the group’s commitment to upholding the highest standards of governance and regulatory compliance.
The stock has been on a declining curve even before the indictment news surfaced. Monday’s fall was the fifth in a row and the stock has corrected by 36% during this time.
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)
