TotalEnergies said to weigh fresh Adani Group investment after share rout scare
The investment would be a show of faith in the controversy-hit empire of billionaire Gautam Adani after a fraud row
TotalEnergies is reportedly in talks to invest $700m in Adani Green Energy, having previously iced plans with the Indian conglomerate after it suffered a stock market meltdown earlier this year amid fraud allegations.
Adani Group saw its listed companies plunge in value after a report from a US research group called Hindenburg, which levelled extraordinary claims that the conglomerate had engaged in “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud”.
Adani Group hit back at the claims, which it described as false and designed to underpin profits from short-selling.
A panel appointed by India’s Supreme Court later found “no regulatory failure” on price manipulation in Adani Group stocks, however the case remains ongoing.
Adani Group faced fresh controversy last month when the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a global network of investigative journalists, found that it had used “opaque” funds to bypass rules that prevent share price manipulation.
The group also dismissed those allegations as “meritless”.
Adani Group operates across a wide range of sectors including commodities, airports and utilities. Its CEO Adani is also passionate about renewable energy, in particular green hydrogen, and has made and pledged huge investments in the sector.
Adani Green aims to amass a 45GW renewables portfolio by 2030.