No one from Adani Group charged with violation of U.S. FCPA: Gautam Adani

Breaking his silence on bribery charges levelled by the U.S. government, Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani on Saturday said that no one from the conglomerate has been charged with any violation of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) or any conspiracy to obstruct justice.

“Less than two weeks back, we faced a set of allegations from the U.S. about compliance practices at Adani Green Energy. This is not the first time we have faced such challenges. What I can tell you is that every attack makes us stronger and every obstacle becomes a stepping stone for a more resilient Adani Group. The fact is that despite a lot of vested reporting, no one from the Adani side has been charged with any violation of the FCPA or any conspiracy to obstruct justice,” Adani said at the 51st Gem & Jewellery Awards in Jaipur.

Yet, in today’s world, negativity spreads faster than facts, the billionaire said. “As we work through the legal process, I want to reconfirm our absolute commitment to world-class regulatory compliance,” he said.

Adani highlighted three challenges that the conglomerate has faced so far. “In 2010, when we were investing in a coal mine in Australia, our objective was clear: How to make India energy secure and replace every 2 tonne of poor quality Indian coal with 1 ton of high quality coal from Australia. However, the resistance from NGOs was huge and lasted almost a decade. It was so intense that we ended up funding the entire project of $10 billion with our own equity. While we now have a world class operating mine in Australia and it could be seen as a great sign of our resilience, the fact is 100% equity funding took away over $30 billion of our debt refinancing from our green energy projects,” he said.

On U.S. short seller Hindenburg Research’s report, Adani said, “In January last year just as we were getting ready to launch our follow-on public offering, we faced a short selling attack initiated from abroad. This was not a typical financial strike. This was a double hit targeting our financial stability and pulling us into political controversies. All of this was further amplified by certain media with vested interests. Even in the face of such adversity our commitment to our principles remains strong. After successfully raising ₹20,000 crore from India’s largest-ever FPO, we made the extraordinary decision to return the proceeds. We then further demonstrated resilience by raising capital from several international sources and proactively reducing our debt to EBITDA ratio to below 2.5 times, an unmatched metric in the global infrastructure space.”

“Challenges have not broken us, instead they have defined us, made us tougher and given us the unshakable belief that after every fall we will rise again stronger and more resilient than before,” he said.

“Over the years, I have come to accept that the roadblocks we face are the price of pioneering. The more bold your dreams, the more world will scrutinise you. But it is precisely in that scrutiny that you must find the courage to rise to challenge the status quo and to build a path where none exists,” the billionaire added.