Adani forms JV to foray into refinery, petrochemicals business

Adani Enterprises' subsidiary Adani Petrochemicals has incorporated a 50:50 joint venture company with Thailand’s Indorama Resources as billionaire Gautam Adani-led conglomerate looks to foray into refinery and petrochemical businesses.

Adani Petrochemicals will hold 50% share capital of Valor Petrochemicals Ltd (VPL), which has been incorporated in India and registered with Registrar of Companies, Mumbai, according to a regulatory filing.

VPL is incorporated with the object to set up refinery, petrochemical and chemical business, the company says.

Indorama is a global producer of fertilisers, polymers, fibres, yarns, and medical gloves.

Reacting to the development, shares of Adani Enterprises rose as much as 2% in intraday trade to hit a high of ₹2,521 on the BSE on Tuesday. In comparison, broader benchmark indices, the BSE Sensex and the Nifty 50, were trading about 0.5% higher.

The announcement comes days after Adani Group said it will sell its entire 44% stake in edible oil maker Adani Wilmar. Adani said the funds from the stake sale will be deployed to strengthen the company’s core infrastructure businesses in energy, logistics, and digital platforms.

Net profit of Adani Enterprises, the diversified flagship company of the Adani Group, jumped over sevenfold to ₹1,741 crore for the quarter ended September, up 663% compared with ₹228 crore in the year-ago period. The company's revenue from operations rose 16% year-on-year to ₹22,608 crore in the second quarter. Operating profit or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased 46% to ₹4,354 crore in Q2 FY25 from ₹2,979 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

In November 2024, the Adani Group chairman was indicted in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York for allegedly bribing Indian government officials with over 250 million to secure lucrative solar energy contracts worth billions of dollars and concealing this information it as they sought to raise capital from U.S. and international investors.

U.S. market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also charged Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and Cyril Cabanes, a former executive of Azure Power’s board, for an alleged bribery plot to secure multi-billion-dollar solar energy projects from the Indian government.

Following the indictment in the U.S., Moody’s Ratings said the indictment of Adani Group's chairman and other senior officials on bribery charges is credit negative for the group’s companies.