AdaniWatch examines two examples where appointments of ‘independent directors’ to Adani Group companies have raised questions. One concerns a director whose financial firm has provided important financial advice to numerous Adani companies. Another concerns a director who appears to have been appointed before a mandatory ‘cooling-off period’ for former staff and others with a pecuniary relationship had expired.
Questions have been raised in the public arena about whether Adani Group companies should have been ‘more forthcoming’ about doing business with a legal firm in which Gautam Adani’s daughter-in-law is a partner. This story details 12 deals in which the legal firm provided advice either to the Adani company concerned or to another party to the deal. As a ‘related party’ to the Adani Group, should Paridhi Adani’s involvement have been formally disclosed to shareholders and stock exchanges?
The conclusion of SEBI’s investigation and the release of its results to the public may be a crucial turning point in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
In a three-part series, the Probe’s Ravi Nair, Abir Dasgupta, and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta revealed the glaring discrepancies in selecting the winning bidder for the disinvestment of the government-owned helicopter service provider Pawan Hans Limited. The Probe has learnt that the government has decided to introduce stringent clauses to the due diligence process on qualified bidders in disinvestment deals of public assets.
The Supreme Court-appointed expert committee in the Adani-Hindenburg case advocates for Adani’s exoneration and finds no regulatory failure by SEBI. The SC-appointed committee’s report itself exposes the limitations it faced.
The investigations by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) into transactions by Adani Group entities have been marred by controversy, raising questions about its ability to handle the high-stakes probe with transparency and efficiency. The Supreme Court of India stipulated a deadline of 2 May 2023 for SEBI to conclude its investigation. However, in May, in response to applications by SEBI, the court extended that deadline to 14 August 2023. SEBI’s floundering has brought the regulator under increased scrutiny.
Major fossil-fuel projects have a question mark hanging over them since Adani’s Hindenburg-driven credit crunch. Three months on from the bombshell Hindenburg report, the Adani Group’s fortunes are yet to turn. The Hindenburg allegations have created a lasting political scandal in India. Meanwhile, on the business side of things, the group faces a persistent debt crunch. Continuing media scrutiny has resulted in a flow of damaging revelations about the group’s businesses. Despite a halting recovery in the stock markets, the group’s net loss since the Hindenburg report is still over US $100 billion.
A month after the release of the explosive Hindenburg report and the shock waves continue. The report has caused a firestorm in the Indian Parliament. The country’s Supreme Court has been deluged with cases arising from the Hindenburg allegations. Several major Adani projects have been cancelled or shelved as speculation mounts about the group’s financial health. Allegations swirl in the international press about the role of Vinod Adani, the older brother of Group founder, Gautam, in a network of Adani-invested entities registered in tax havens. Fears are now openly expressed in the world’s financial press that funds invested in ‘green’ Adani companies may have been used to back new coal projects.
Are the government and its agencies acting in a discriminatory manner so far as Jatin Mehta is concerned? Is there any weight to Congress’s allegations that he is getting preferential treatment on account of his links with the Adani family? Long before allegations of fraud levelled by banks against Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi made headlines in the media in India and the world, another diamantaire from Gujarat, Jatin Mehta, and his group of companies had caused a major loss to Indian and international banks and became the one of the largest wilful defaulters of loans.
