France’s TotalEnergies pauses investments in Adani group following US indictment over
France’s TotalEnergies pauses investments in Adani group following US indictment over alleged bribery case
M.U.H
26/11/202423
French energy major TotalEnergies has decided that it will not make “any new financial contribution” as part of its partnership with the Adani group till the “accusations” against the firm’s “individuals” in the US and “their consequences have been clarified”. Notably, the Paris-headquartered company said that it was not made aware of the existence of an investigation into Adani group officials in the US, and that it learned of the development through public announcements made by American authorities.
TotalEnergies’s announcement follows last week’s US prosecutors’ indictment of Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani, his nephew and Adani Green Energy Executive Director Sagar Adani, Adani Green Managing Director Vneet Jaain, and five others for allegedly orchestrating a scheme to pay $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials for securing power supply contracts in India. Simultaneously, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also moved court demanding a jury trial and other penalties against Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani.
TotalEnergies’s decision comes days after Kenyan President William Ruto’s announcement last week that he had ordered the cancellation of a procurement process to award control of the country’s main airport in Nairobi to the Adani Group in view of the US indictment.
TotalEnergies owns 19.75 per cent of Adani Green, apart from being a partner to the Adani group in a few other group companies. On Monday, the Adani Green scrip declined 8.1 per cent to Rs 967.65 on the BSE, even as the benchmark Sensex gained 1.3 per cent to end the day’s trade at 80,109.85 points.
“TotalEnergies has learnt through public announcements made by the US authorities of the indictment of certain individual Adani group executives in relation to an alleged corruption scheme linked to the business of Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL). This indictment does not target AGEL itself, nor any AGEL related companies. In accordance with its code of conduct, TotalEnergies rejects corruption in any form,” TotalEnergies said in a statement Monday.
The French energy giant said that it is “not targeted nor involved” in the facts described in the US indictment, and will take all relevant actions to protect its interests as minority shareholder of Adani Green, and as a joint-venture partner in project companies with Adani Green.
“TotalEnergies recalls that its investments in Adani’s entities were undertaken in full compliance with applicable laws, and with TotalEnergies’ own internal governance processes pursuant to due diligence and representations made by the sellers. In particular, TotalEnergies was not made aware of the existence of an investigation into the alleged corruption scheme.
On its part, the Adani group has dismissed the allegations as baseless, adding that it will seek all possible legal recourse. It has also said that none of its 11 public companies are subject to the indictment in the US, and neither the companies nor their arms are accused of any wrongdoing.
“My humble request is that we will respond in fullness of time once we review in detail the matter as presented in the legal filing (Please note that no court has ruled on this and as outlined by lawyers of #DOJ these are ‘allegations and accused have presumption of innocence’). We will make a more detailed comment once we get counsel approvals to discuss what we can in public on matter that is sub-judice,” Adani group’s chief financial officer Jugeshinder Robbie Singh wrote in a post on social media platform X on Saturday.
