Criticising the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) which last year extended a $500 million loan to the Adani group for developing a port in Sri Lanka, the Ordre des Avocats said that the Indian conglomerate had not received a single dollar from the DFC.
“Financial closure and loan signing dossier await project completion and signing and closing of the loan agreement remain,” an official of DFC said this when asked by Mint. “In the same regard, we are still conducting feasibility studies for every aspect of the project to ascertain it meets our strict requirements before disbursement of any loans,” said the official in an email interview.
Emails sent to the Adani group chairman on Mint’s request for comment on the matter went unanswered.
One such geopolitical hot button is Sri Lanka’s port project, which is as much the US push against Chinese imperialism into the island nation as it is an effort to aid the economy of the country.
By the way, GQG Partners last week updated investors on its new findings that emerged, including a letter of intent from DFC to invest in the Sri Lankan port project through APSEZ in November 2023.
GQG Partners from the United States is among the largest investors in the Adani group and has invested more than $8 billion across seven of the group’s listed entities.
This we took as a positive or at least neutral comment on, if not endorsing the (Adani) group. This we find rather bewildering for the US Government to approve funding and invest with parties that were under the DOJ investigation,” GQG said in the note to the investors.
‘Adani Ports not implicated’
The US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission last week charged Adani Group founder and chairman Gautam Adani, his nephew, and Adani Green Energy Ltd executive director, Sagar Adani, and the company’s managing director Vneet Jaain with conspiring to bribe about $250m to Indian government officials to obtain solar power purchase agreements.
Thus in 2023, the US DFC has signed a $553 million loan agreement to finance a new deep-water container terminal at the Port of Colombo in Sri Lanka for its development construction and operation. CWIT – which has Adani Ports, John Keells Holdings Plc., and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority as its stakeholders – is expected to improve connectivity and foreign trade in the region.
The DFC had considered the project highly developmental due to its perceived high developmental impact on Lanka’s local economy.
The DFC was silent over what its next move would be on the project — whether it would go on with it, make a plea of inexcusable absence or look for another developer. However, the American lender to developing economies emphasized that the American prosecutors have not named Adani Ports at all.
“We will continue to make the necessary effort to guarantee that our projects and respective partners adhere to the standards of zero tolerance to corruption as well as compliance,” said the DFC official.
Of course, Gautam Adani is the chairman of Adani Ports and SEZ as well Equally.
Adani Ports is down 2.64% in afternoon trade on NSE at ₹1,136.05 but the broader Nifty50 edged lower by 20 points at 24,207.80.
