Adani group junks bribery allegations; says no such notice from U.S. Justice Dept

After up to 8% fall on Monday, billionaire Gautam Adani-led Adani Group companies saw mixed trading on Tuesday following the clarification by the conglomerate that it has not received any notice from the Department of Justice of the U.S. in relation to the bribery allegations.

"This is in relation to the article titled ‘U.S. Probing Indian Billionaire Gautam Adani and His Group Over Potential Bribery’...Adani Enterprises Limited (“Company”) states that it has not received any notice from the Department of Justice of U.S. in respect of the allegation referred to in the said article," an exchange filing by Adani Enterprises says.

Notably, the Adani group companies' shares tumbled up to 8% in intraday trade on Monday after a media report that the U.S. government had widened its probe against the port-to-power conglomerate over suspicions of bribery.

Today, at the time of reporting, the flagship firm Adani Enterprises stock was trading at ₹3,138.05, up 27.65 points or 0.89%, on the BSE. The stock touched the day's high at ₹3,164.65 today, and its m-cap stands at ₹3.56 lakh crore.

Six out of the other nine listed companies of the Gujarat-based conglomerate were trading in the red, with ACC Cement down at 0.2% at ₹2,437.2. Media platform NDTV is down at 0.75% on the BSE while Adani Green is trading at -1.54%, Adani Ports (-1.01%), Adani Power (-1.58%), and Ambuja Cement (-1.22%), all are also trading in the negative territory.

Adani Energy Solutions, however, is currently trading up 0.54% at ₹1014.60, followed by Adani Total Gas at 0.54%, and Adani Wilmar at 0.65%.

In contrast, the BSE Sensex is down 567 points, or 0.78%, at 72,181.24 levels, while the NSE Nifty is trading 172 points, or 0.78% down, at 21,883 levels.

On March 15, a global news agency reported that the U.S. investigators were looking into whether an Adani group entity or its affiliates, or people linked to the company, including Gautam Adani, were involved in bribing officials in India for preferential treatment on energy projects.

Last month, global brokerage Jefferies initiated a ‘Buy’ call on Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL), saying its EBITDA is expected to double from FY23 to FY26 and will grow more than 3x by FY28. The agency in its report says with new businesses of the airport and green hydrogen, it expects EBITDA to grow 3x over FY24-FY28.

Besides, U.S.-based rating agency Moody's Investor Services also changed its outlook on four Adani group companies to ‘stable’ from ‘negative’ earlier, while affirming the ratings of eight companies. The ratings agency has changed its outlook on Adani Green Energy, Adani Green Energy Restricted Group 1, Adani Transmission Step-On, and Adani Electricity Mumbai, to 'stable' from 'negative'. The outlook was affirmed to be "stable" for Adani Energy Solutions Restricted Group 1, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, Adani International Container Terminal and Adani Green Energy Restricted Group 2.

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