None of its portfolio companies, including 11 listed firms, have been accused of any wrongdoing, the conglomerate's CFO Jugeshinder Robbie Singh said on founder and chairman Gautam Adani's indictment on bribery charges in the US.
"The group will make a detailed comment on the US indictment once it gets counsel approvals," Singh posted on X.
Adani and seven other defendants, including his nephew Sagar Adani, illegally agreed to pay around USD 265 million in bribes to Indian government officials between around 2020 and 2024 to secure solar energy supply contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars on terms likely to generate USD 2 billion in profit over 20 years, an indictment unsealed on Wednesday in the New York court said.
US Securities and Exchange Commission has also charged Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani executives of Adani Green Energy Ltd and an executive of Azure Power Global, named Cyril Cabanes, with "conduct arising out of a massive bribery scheme".
"There is a lot of news and reports that will try to pick unrelated items and create a headline. My humble request is that we will respond in the fullness of time once we review in detail the matter as presented in the legal filing," Singh said.
No court has ruled on the indictment, and as outlined by lawyers of the US Department of Justice, these are "allegations and the accused have a presumption of innocence." He hastened to add.
The CFO, who was the first line of defence when US short-seller Hindenburg Research had accused the ports-to-power conglomerate of fraud in January 2023, said the group became aware of the "specificity" of the US indictment against founder and chairman Gautam Adani two days ago.
"We were of the view that something is afoot (and in February 2024 144a offering circular in Risk Factors we disclosed as such. This was the first public issuance of any of our portfolio companies or their subsidiaries or joint venture companies after our annual results of 31st March 2023),"' he said.
He, however, didn't explain what the company had disclosed in February 2024.
He added that the Adani Group has 11 public companies, "none of which are subject to indictment (i.E. Defendants in any legal proceedings in the recent DOJ lawyer filings to a court in NYC)".
"None of the issuers (i.E. Companies in our portfolio or specific issuers that are subsidiaries of the public companies) are accused of any wrongdoing in the said legal filing," he said.
The indictment "relates to one contract of Adani Green, which is roughly 10 per cent of overall business of Adani Green (there is a lot more precise and comprehensive detail of this which we will elaborate in an appropriate forum)," he said.
The statement comes two days after Gautam Adani was charged by US prosecutors for his role in an alleged years-long scheme to pay USD 265 million (about RS 2,200 crore) in bribes to Indian officials seeking to secure solar energy contracts. The conglomerate has rubbished the allegations terming them baseless and announced plans to seek legal recourse.
The Adani Group has 11 listed companies in the Indian stock exchanges: flagship incubator Adani Enterprises Ltd, electricity producer Adani Power Ltd, ports company Adani Ports & SEZ, power transmission firm Adani Energy Solutions Limited, renewable arm Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL), city gas distributor Adani Total Gas Ltd, commodities firm Adani Wilmar Ltd, media firm New Delhi Television Ltd and cement companies Ambuja Cements Limited, ACC Ltd, and Sanghi Industries Ltd.
"There is much news and reports that will try to pick unrelated items and create a headline. My humble request is that we will respond in fullness of time once we review in detail the matter as presented in the legal filing (Please note that no court has ruled on this and as outlined by lawyers of DOJ these are 'allegations and accused have a presumption of innocence'). We will make a more detailed comment once we get counsel approvals to discuss what we can in public on a matter that is sub-judice," he added.
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