After bribery charges, TotalEnergies stops investing in India’s Adani Group

An alleged multimillion-dollar bribery plan caused the French oil company TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) to stop investing in Adani Group on Monday. This was because the Indian ports-to-power conglomerate was in a crisis.

This is the first big move that has happened since the U.S. charged Gautam Adani, the billionaire head of Adani, and seven other people with agreeing to pay Indian government officials about $265 million in bribes.

Analysts at Bernstein Research say that TotalEnergies has a $4 billion to $5 billion financial tie to Adani firms. The company said it had not been told about the investigation into the alleged corruption plan.

It wasn’t known what TotalEnergies’ plans were for future investments in Adani Group companies, but the news of a break adds to the criticism the $143-billion Indian group is getting for not following disclosure rules. This could make other investors look more closely at the company.

“Until such time when the accusations against the Adani group individuals and their consequences have been clarified, TotalEnergies will not make any new financial contribution as part of its investments in the Adani group of companies,” the French firm said.

ADNA.NS, the company at the heart of the case, has a 20% stake in TotalEnergies and a seat on its board. TotalEnergies said it does not accept any kind of corruption.

The bribery charges brought by U.S. officials were about payments made to get contracts that could bring in $2 billion over 20 years. On top of that, they were charged with lying to the public after being told about the U.S. investigation in 2023.

In a separate civil case, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also made claims against the Adani Group. The Adani Group said these accusations were false and that it would take “all possible legal action.”

Adani did not answer right away when asked for a response on TotalEnergies’ statement.

After TotalEnergies’s statement on Monday, shares of Adani Green Energy fell more than 11% before slowly rising to end the day 7.9% lower. On the other hand, shares of Adani Total Gas (ADAG.NS), in which the French company has a 37.4% stake, finished the day 1.4% lower.

Monday, India’s parliament was suspended because lawmakers wanted to talk about the accusations. The problem was still hurting the group that Adani, 62, one of the richest people in the world, started.
On Sunday, a U.S. development agency said it was looking into how the payment claims might affect its plan to lend more than $550 million to a Sri Lankan port development backed by the Adani group.

The office said that as of now, no money has been sent out as part of the loan agreement.

Parliament was broken up.

The Adani group has companies and projects all over the world. Since they were charged in the U.S., some of these have gotten more attention.

Adani was supposed to get control of Kenya’s main airport, but last week, President William Ruto canceled a process that was supposed to do that.

In Bangladesh, a group looking into power generation contracts, including one with Adani Power (ADAN.NS), told the interim government they needed to hire a global law company to make sure the deals they looked into were thoroughly and openly investigated.

In India, opposition parties have been going after Adani for a long time because they say he is too close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They caused problems in both houses of government so that the Adani allegations could be talked about.

“The first thing the government should do is have a detailed conversation about the Adani saga, which could hurt India’s reputation around the world,” Mallikarjun Kharge, head of the main opposition Congress party, wrote on X.

Vice President of India and head of the upper house, Jagdeep Dhankhar, said that he had received 13 notices from lawmakers asking to talk about Adani, but he could not allow them because they did not follow the rules.

As lawmakers pushed on their demand, Dhankhar shut down the chamber for the day. The lower house had a similar situation.

Indian opposition parties have said in the past that Modi’s government is protecting Gautam Adani and his companies, which the government and the parties reject.

Modi’s opponents say that he has been close to Adani for a long time, going back almost twenty years to when he was chief minister of Gujarat, a western state where Adani is from.

They say that the government is handpicking business deals for the group, but the government calls those claims “wild allegations.”

The government hasn’t said anything about the charges, but Modi’s BJP has said that the Adani Group should handle and protect itself, and that the law will do what it needs to do.

ADANI STOCKS HAD A MIXED DAY

Dozens of members and fans of the youth wing of the Congress party marched outside of parliament to protest. They held signs calling for Adani’s arrest and yelled slogans that linked him to Modi.

The Adani group has been through two crises in two years. Last year, short seller Hindenburg Research said the group was abusing foreign tax havens. The company said those claims were false.

Investors pulled their money out of the company, which pushed down the prices of Adani dollar bonds, which caused the problems in parliament.

Some of the most liquid debts from Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSE.NS) fell between 1 cent and 2 cents on Monday in Asian trade. Adani Transmission debt also saw this kind of selling.