2023-12-28 00:00:00 | Spyware found on phones of journalists investigating Adani

Indian journalists investigating the Adani Group have repeatedly been targeted by the highly invasive Pegasus spyware, a report by Amnest International has found. Anand Magnale, investigative journalist and South Asia Editor at the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), led an investigation into alleged stock price manipulation at Adani Group, and was then among those that Amnesty International found to have been targeted. The spyware's developer, NSO Group, saying that it only sells its product to governments, leading Amnesty International to call for India to investigate the attack and disclose whether it uses the spyware. The revelations raise fears for journalists in India holding the Adani Group to account.

2023-10-20 00:00:00 | Banks arrange $3.5bn refinancing for Adani

On October 20 2023, it was announced that Adani secured a USD $3.5bn refinancing package from its faithful international lenders, including Barclays, BNP and Deutsche Bank. The refinancing package will allow Adani to finance a USD $10bn acquisition of cement assets in India previously owned by Holcim Cement, a Swiss company. Singaporean DBS Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank, and the two Japanese megabanks, Mizuho and MUFG, underwrote the three-year loan.

This loan is symbolic, as the largest evidence of financial confidence in the Adani Group since Hindenburg Research published allegations of financial fraud, leading to a $150bn dip in the Group's stock value.

2023-08-31 00:00:00 | New revelations about Adani Group's stock price manipulation through offshore shell companies

On August 31st, more evidence emerged of the Adani Group's use of offshore shell companies to manipulate its stock price. Investigations by the OCCRP, and reported on widely, including in the FT and Guardian, allege that close associates of the Adani family controlled shares in the company, allowing Vinod Adani, CEO Gautam Adani's brother and a key leader of the conglomerate, to manipulate the company's stock price. Vinod Adani's two associates controlled at least 13% of publicly traded Adani Group shares, through a complex "Russian doll" network of shell companies in Mauritius. Hindenburg Research, the originator of fraud allegations of Adani, said: "Finally, the loop is closed."

2023-04-04 00:00:00 | Adani Group's financial woes have spiraled in the past month

The recent financial turmoil for the Adani Group and its subsidiaries was sparked by a damning report at the end of January 2023 by Hindenburg Research, a US-based forensic financial research firm. The 2-year investigation into Adani Group's deeply corrupt financial practices stated that Adani has inflated the price of its subsidiaries' stock and undertaken accounting fraud over the course of decades. The financial impropriety and stock value manipulation have allegedly then eroded the group's ability to deliver on its debt commitments, adding genuine financial pressures to the reputational damage. Near-daily revelations have since been emerging of Adani's plunging equity value.

This is all relevant in several ways to BankTrack's work of scrutinising Adani's social and environmental impacts and its banking relationships: first, the revelations support the long-term accusations that the conglomerate has used offshore shell entities to siphon money from some parts of the business to others, which means the investments in and by any one Adani subsidiary are not necessarily insulated from others.Our work of ensuring accountability of financial investors in Adani thereby becomes murkier, with investors' exposure extending effectively to the entirety of the business's dealings. Second, Adani's major lenders have been called on to prop up key parts of the business in light of the pressure, for example the State Bank of India pledging to increase its equity in several subsidiaries as a means of supporting the Carmichael coal mine. Our work is as important as ever, as old lenders deepen their support for Adani's dodgy activities and new investors swoop in to capitalise on the turmoil. Third, there are signs that the company's setbacks have compelled it to step back from grander ambitions and focus on its core revenue generators – namely, the climate-wrecking ports and power that fuelled its rise. Finally, as Adani struggles to respond to its drop in share value (a loss of around $100bn market capitalisation), it has scrambled to issue ever more bonds (aiming to issue US $10bn this year, with US $8bn outstanding) – this makes the need even more urgent for all the major banks that underwrite these loans, all of which have BankTrack profiles, to pull out of Adani's corrupt empire.

2019-06-13 00:00:00 | Adani Mining’s Carmichael coal mine project receives final approval

Adani Mining’s plan to build a 10 million tonnes open-pit thermal coal mine and associated infrastructure in the Galilee Basin of Queensland, Australia, has sealed the final approvals it requires to start construction. Lucas Dow, CEO Adani Mining, confirmed that the company had received advice from the Queensland Government’s Department of Environment and Science (DES) that the Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems Management Plan (GDEMP) had been finalised and approved.

2018-09-12 00:00:00 | State and federal investigation launched into Adani's Carmichael water drilling

The Australian government will investigate allegations Adani has drilled illegal groundwater bores at its Carmichael mine site. Environment group Coast and Country has said it obtained aerial footage showing dewatering bores that were sunk without approval.

2017-08-29 00:00:00 | Adani to begin construction of Carmichael coal mine in October

Indian mining giant Adani has announced it will break ground on the Carmichael coal mine in October. The facility’s first coal is expected in March 2020.

2017-06-06 00:00:00 | Adani gives green light to Carmichael coal mine project

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has approved the Carmichael coal mine and rail project. Bank financing for the project is still lacking and the company is yet to secure its bid for a AUD 900 million infrastructure loan from the Australian federal government. The loan would build a railway to Queensland’s Galilee Basin, which would open up the region to the wider mining industry. Adani’s top executive in Australia, Jeyakumar Janakaraj, voiced his displeasure with “activists who sit in creature comfort and criticise us”.

2017-02-15 00:00:00 | Environmental Justice Australia reveals Adani's disastrous track record

A detailed legal research brief by Environmental Justice Australia has revealed Adani’s long history of illegal dealings, bribery, environmental and social devastation, as well as a collection of allegations of corruption, fraud and money laundering at the company. The Adani Brief demonstrates that Australian governments and potential financiers are exposing themselves to financial and reputational risks by backing the Carmichael project.

2016-12-22 00:00:00 | Indian agencies investigate Adani

Adani Enterprises is one of several coal companies under investigation by India’s Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) for inflating the cost of imported coal. For a decade, the DRI has been investigating Adani entities that traded in diamonds and gold jewellery. Adani Enterprises was named in a 2011 report by Karnataka’s state ombudsman, after documents seized by police allegedly “indicate that money has been regularly paid to port authorities, customs authorities, [the] police department, mines and geology and even to MLAs/MPs.” Adani has rejected the allegations.

2016-03-16 00:00:00 | Green panel defers nod to Adani Power 1,600 megawatt project in Jharkhand

An environment ministry panel has deferred green clearance to Adani Power 's 1,600 megawatt thermal project in Jharkhand, India and has sought more information from the company. Adani Power (Jharkhand) Ltd, a subsidiary of Adani Power Ltd, is planning to set up 2x800 megawatt Paraspani thermal power project in Godda district of Jharkhand (source: www.moneycontrol.com).

2016-02-04 00:00:00 | Adani freezes investment in Carmichael mine until world coal price recovers

According to The Guardian: Adani has frozen its investment in Australia's largest proposed coalmine until world coal prices show a clear recovery, its executives have indicated in stock analyst briefings in India. The briefings even gave rise to speculation that Adani Enterprises, which has previously flagged spending USD4.1 billion on the Carmichael mine in north Queensland, might abandon its plans for the mine altogether amid a huge move by the company into solar energy.

2015-08-05 00:00:00 | Adani and Commonwealth Bank part ways, casting further doubt on Carmichael coal project

According to The Sydney Morning Herald: The Commonwealth Bank's role as adviser to Australia's biggest coal project, Adani Mining's proposed Carmichael Mine in Queensland, has ended, dealing a heavy blow to its prospects and a significant victory for environmental groups.