Investor updates

This page is updated regularly with the latest news about why Adani’s biggest investors must cut all ties with Adani.

Context

Coal giant Adani is planning to develop more new coal than any other private company in the world. In Australia, Adani are trying to dig the biggest coal mine on the land of the Wangan and Jagalingou people - who have never given their free, prior and informed consent to the project. In India, Adani has bought at least 8 new coal mines since 2020, and is planning new coal-burning power stations and a highly-polluting coal-to-plastics plant. 

To make matters worse, Adani has been accused of pulling “the largest con in corporate history” in a damning report presenting detailed evidence of “brazen accounting fraud, stock manipulation and money laundering” over many decades. 

As the Hindenburg Report demonstrates, Adani moves money around its vast corporate empire so that any investment in any Adani company could end up financing Adani’s dirty coal projects, including the Carmichael mine. Any company that invests in any Adani Group company is complicit in Adani's coal expansion and violation of Indigenous land rights. 

Demands

The #StopAdani movement's demands of Adani's investors are that they:

  1. Divest from all Adani Group companies, and;
  2. Rule out any further investment or arrangement of finance until Adani abandons its Carmichael Coal Project

Already Happening

Major investors are aleady pulling their money out of Adani because of climate, human rights and governance concerns. These include:

  1. Carnegie, June 2020, “An example of a company that has been avoided for environmental reasons is Adani Ports”. Source
  2. Danske Bank, September 2020, Restrictions prohibiting investment in Adani Ports and Adani’s North Queensland Export Terminal due to the company’s “climate change contribution and harmful environmental practices”. Source
  3. SPP, January 2021, “The following companies are excluded from all SPP Fonder’s funds in agreement with SPP’s sustainability criteria – Serious environmental and climate damage”. List includes Adani Ports. Source
  4. PIMCO, March 2021, PIMCO banned future investment in Adani Ports bonds and clarified that it did not participate in the January 2021 bond issue, due to links to the Carmichael coal project. Source
  5. SwedBank, April 2021, Excluded Adani Ports due to its connection to fossil fuels. Source
  6. Samsung Asset Management, June 2021 "the fund no longer owns Adani Ports shares and has no plan to repurchase the shares. Overall, Samsung Asset Management clearly has no intention to support Adani’s coal project” Source
  7. Storebrand, June 2021, stated it had dumped its Adani Ports shares due to “our sustainability criteria related to coal" Source
  8. Norges, January 2023, reduced its exposure by $600M in the wake of Hindenburg's fraud allegations. In February it divested its remaining exposure. Source
  9. Credit Suisse, February 2023, stopped accepting Adani bonds as collateral in the wake of Hindenburg's fraud allegations. Source
  10. Citi, February 2023, stopped accepting Adani bonds as collateral in the wake of Hindenburg's fraud allegations. Source
  11. Standard Chartered, February 2023, stopped accepting Adani bonds as collateral in the wake of Hindenburg's fraud allegations. Source
  12. KLP, February 2023, divested from Adani Green, citing concerns its money for green investments could be siphoned into coal mining. Source
  13. PFA, February 2023, Denmark’s largest commercial pension PFA fund sold off  their holdings due to concerns their Adani Green Energy investments could be funding coal. Source

Key Updates

Hindenburg Research accuses Adani Group of “pulling the largest con in corporate history”

  • On January 24th Hindenburg Research released a bombshell report titled “Adani Group: How the world’s 3rd richest man is pulling the largest con in corporate history.” The 106-page report was the result of a two-year forensic investigation into Adani’s finances and corporate governance that laid out detailed and damning evidence of “brazen accounting fraud, stock manipulation and money laundering…taking place over the course of decades.” The report came just days before Adani Enterprises was due to launch a US$2.5billion share sale for its pipeline of projects, which includes the Carmichael coal mine in Australia, proposed coal mines in India and a mega proposed coal-to-plastics plant. 

Coal and Climate Change:

Violating Human Rights:

 


Latest Updates

February 2023

  • On January 24th Hindenburg Research released a bombshell report titled “Adani Group: How the world’s 3rd richest man is pulling the largest con in corporate history.” The 106-page report was the result of a two-year forensic investigation into Adani’s finances and corporate governance that laid out detailed and damning evidence of “brazen accounting fraud, stock manipulation and money laundering…taking place over the course of decades.” The report came just days before Adani Enterprises was due to launch a US$2.4billion share sale for its pipeline of projects, which includes the Carmichael coal mine in Australia, proposed coal mines in India and a mega proposed coal-to-plastics plant. 

  • Adani stocks plummeted in the weeks after the Hindenburg Report's release, with the Adani Group losing over $100billion USD ($159B AUD), with companies down 10-30%, and USD bonds down .7c with rampant selling. Gautam Adani dropped out of Bloomberg’s top 10 rich list. Investors including Barclays, Deutsche Bank, MUFG and Standard Chartered held emergency calls with Adani.

August 2022

March 2022

  • A new Moody’s report on Adani’s North Queensland Export Terminal (NQXT) confirmed Adani is using its investors’ money to pay debt on essential infrastructure for its Carmichael mine. NQXT is the coal port from which all coal from Adani’s Carmichael coal mine will be shipped through the Great Barrier Reef, making it an integral part of the Carmichael coal project. Adani is struggling to find an external source to refinance US$500M of bonds in NQXT that are maturing in December, 2022. Adani told Moody’s it is planning to refinance the debt from within the Adani corporate structure, meaning that any finance or investment in The Adani Group could free up capital for the Carmichael mine and its essential infrastructure.

    In its review, Moody’s maintained the status of the bond at Ba2, which is considered a junk bond, and said NQXT has a ‘negative outlook’. Factors cited by Moody’s as contributing to the negative outlook included the terminal’s growing exposure to coal, and “the remaining degree of uncertainty around the execution of the refinancing plan and future capital structure of the terminal." Moody’s noted NQXT’s credit profile will be increasingly subject to ESG risks as production ramps up at Carmichael.

    Standard and Poor’s revised their assessment of the port’s liquidity from adequate to less than adequate and said "the refinancing risks associated with the project remain high."

  • Two of Adani’s customers at its North Queensland Export Terminal are taking Adani back to the High Court over claims that Adani engaged in “unconscionable conduct” and dishonest behaviour to exploit its customers, raising further doubts about the long-term viability of Adani’s coal port as it struggles to refinance a US$500M debt bill.

  • Adani Enterprises purchased another two coal mining blocks in India, containing total reserves of over 550 million tonnes of coal. Adani Enterprises have purchased at least 8 new coal blocks since 2020, undermining the company’s ludicrous claims of being a company in transition.

January 2022

December 2021

November 2021

August 2021

  • Adani's most recent annual reports confirmed Adani is propping up its Australian coal operations with massive inter-company loans. The two main Adani Australian subsidiaries responsible for the Carmichael Mine and Rail Projects borrowed over AU$4 billion from other Adani Group companies in the last year. As detailed in the excerpts below, AU$1.31 billion of the loans were interest bearing and denominated in US dollars and Euros - suggesting this money has come from loans from external lenders that Adani has subsequently directed into the Carmichael Coal Project.  Anyone investing in any Adani company is at risk of funding Adani’s Carmichael Coal Mine and Rail Project.


  • Adani purchased another 3 coal mining blocks and another coal-fired power station in India, adding to its already massive coal expansion plans. Adani has been the most aggressive bidder in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s auction of new coal blocks - undermining Adani’s nonsensical claims about being a company in transition.

  • Ratings agency Moody’s downgraded the outlook of Adani’s North Queensland Export Terminal (formerly Abbot Point) to negative due to environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors. Moody’s said the change to the outlook was particularly due to the “rising refinancing risk” associated with the coal terminal’s US$500 million bond which matures in December 2022. “Refinance risk is being heightened by reduced appetite from creditors for coal investments due to ESG considerations,” it stated.

  • Journalists revealed that some of Adani's biggest shareholders are, in fact, four obscure and opaque funds in Mauritius - a notorious tax haven - each with a sordid history of investing in firms that have defaulted, or been probed for serious financial crimes. Share prices of Adani Group companies plummeted after media reported that the accounts of three of these offshore investors had been frozen. Opposition parties have called for a government probe into the offshore funds to find out if they are being used as a shell for Adani’s own money.

July 2021

April 2021

  • Adani Ports was removed from the Dow Jones Sustainability Index over its business ties to the Myanmar military.  In March a report by the Australian Centre for International Justice (ACIJ) and Justice For Myanmar (JFM) exposed Adani Ports’ deepening ties with the Myanmar military, despite the escalating human rights crisis in Myanmar after the military led a violent coup on 1 February toppling the democratically elected civilian government. Adani Ports has partnered with the Myanmar military-owned company Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) to build a port in Yangon, and paid the MEC tens of millions of dollars. Adani Ports ‘categorically denied’ engaging with Myanmar military leadership before photo and video evidence emerged of Adani Ports’ CEO Karan Adani meeting with sanctioned senior military general Min Aung Hlaing, an accused war criminal, and exchanging gifts.

    The UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission Report in 2019 warned investments in companies who partner with the Myanmar Economic Corporation can help finance the Myanmar military. Adani Ports investors and bond arrangers must immediately divest from Adani Ports or risk being complicit in grave human rights abuses.
Arrow White Transparent Down

More reasons to #StopAdani