Adani US Bribery Charges Credit Negative For Group Companies, Says Moody's

New Delhi: International rating agency Moody's has said that US prosecutors' indictment of Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar and other defendants for paying over USD 250 million in bribes between 2020 and 2024 to Indian government officials to win solar energy contracts can be Credit Negative for the group companies.

"The indictment of Adani Group's chairman and other senior officials on bribery charges is credit negative for the group’s companies. Our main focus when assessing Adani Group is on the ability of the group’s companies to access capital to meet their liquidity requirements and on its governance practices," Moody's Ratings said in a statement.

The combined market valuation of all the listed firms eroded by Rs 2.45 lakh crore on Thursday as the company's stocks came massively falling on Indian bourses. The combined market capitalisation (mcap) of all the ten listed group firms eroded by Rs 2,45,016.51 crore during the morning deals.

Shares of Adani Group of companies saw a decline of between 10 and 20 percent on Thursday (November 21).

Adani Energy Solutions stock came down to Rs 697.70 apiece on BSE, hitting 20 percent lower circuit; Adani Enterprises hit 10 percent lower circuits of Rs 2,538.20; Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone hit 10 percent lower circuits of Rs1,160.15; Ambuja Cements hit 10 percent lower circuits of Rs 494.65
Adani Green Energy shares dropped 19 percent; Both Adani Power and Adani Total Gas crashed 18 percent; Adani Wilmar share dropped 10 percent.

Meanwhile, Adani Green eneregy responded by saying that it had decided not to proceed with the proposed USD denominated bond offerings.

In an exchange filing on Thursday, Adani Green Energy Limited said, "The United States Department of Justice and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission have issued a criminal indictment and brought a civil complaint, respectively, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, against our Board members, Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani. The United States Department of Justice have also included our Board member, Vneet Jaain, in such criminal indictment. In light of these developments, our subsidiaries have presently decided not to proceed with the proposed USD denominated bond offerings."