India's Adani Group sees $22 bln in value wiped off after US indictments (updated)

Adani Total Gas

21/11/2024 04:38

(Updates shares, adds details)
       Nov 21 (Reuters) - Shares of Adani Group companies lost
about $22 billion in market value in early trade on Thursday
after U.S. prosecutors charged the billionaire chairman of the
Indian conglomerate in an alleged bribery and fraud scheme.
    Gautam Adani's flagship company Adani Enterprises  ADEL.NS 
fell 10%, while Adani Ports  APSE.NS , Adani Total Gas
 ADAG.NS , Adani Green  ADNA.NS , Adani Power  ADAN.NS , Adani
Wilmar  ADAW.NS  and Adani Energy Solutions  ADAI.NS , ACC
 ACC.NS , Ambuja Cements  ABUJ.NS  and NDTV  NDTV.NS 
fell between 8% and 20%.
    Adani group's 10 listed stocks had a total market
capitalisation of about $147 billion at 0411 GMT, compared to
$169.08 billion on Tuesday.
    U.S. authorities said Adani and seven other defendants,
including his nephew Sagar Adani, agreed to pay about $265
million in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain
contracts expected to yield $2 billion of profit over 20 years,
and develop India's largest solar power plant project.
    Adani Green in a statement on Thursday said the U.S. Justice
Department had issued a criminal indictment against board
members Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani and the Securities and
Exchange Commission had issued a civil complaint against them.
    The U.S. Justice Department also included Adani Green board
member Vneet Jaain in the criminal indictment, it said.
    Adani Green's units had decided not to proceed with the
proposed U.S.-dollar denominated bond offerings due to  
developments, it added. 
    The indictment comes nearly two years after U.S. shortseller
Hindenburg Research alleged that Adani had improperly used tax
havens and was involved in stock manipulation, allegations the
conglomerate denied. 
    Also in early Asian trading on Thursday, Adani dollar bonds
slumped, with prices down 3c-5c on bonds for Adani Ports and
Special Economic Zone  US00652MAJ18=TE . The falls were the
largest since the Adani Group came under a short-seller attack
in February 2023.   
      
($1 = 84.4000 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Sethuraman NR; Editing by Muralikumar
Anantharaman and Stephen Coates)
 ((Sethuraman.NR@thomsonreuters.com; (+91 9945291420); Reuters
Messaging: nallur.sethuraman.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))