France’s TotalEnergies SE on Friday said it invested in two Adani Group companies in full compliance with Indian laws and no re-evaluation has been performed following the stock market rout the conglomerate has faced after a report raised governance concerns.
The French company issued a statement in the aftermath of stock prices of Adani Total Gas Ltd and Adani Green Energy Ltd plunging about 60 per cent since January 24. It said its exposure to Adani Group companies was $3.1 billion of capital employed at the end of December, a small fraction of the energy giant’s globe-spanning interests.
“TotalEnergies’ investments in Adani’s entities were undertaken in full compliance with applicable — namely Indian — laws, and with TotalEnergies’ own internal governance processes,” it said. “The due diligence, which were carried out to TotalEnergies’ satisfaction, were consistent with best practices, and all relevant material in the public domain was reviewed, including the detailed disclosures to regulators required under applicable laws,” the statement said.
“TotalEnergies welcomes the announcement by Adani to mandate one of the ‘big four’ accounting firms to carry out a general audit.” The French firm owns a 37.4 per cent stake in Adani Total Gas Ltd and 50 per cent in Adani Total Private Limited, which is developing a liquefied natural gas import terminal.
Bank defence
Public sector lender Bank of Baroda on Friday said it has reduced exposure to the embattled Adani Group entities over the last two years, and has no concerns on asset quality issues with the conglomerate.
The bank’s managing director and chief executive Sanjiv Chadha told reporters that the bank’s overall exposure to the ports-to-media conglomerate’s entities is one fourth of the single group exposures allowed under the Large Exposures Framework (LEF) but refused to share a number.
Jammu and Kashmir Bank, which has an exposure of nearly Rs 250 crore in Adani Group, on Friday said investors have nothing to worry as its loans are secured. “Our loans to Adani Group are secured against the assets of the projects that were financed by JK Bank,” JK Bank deputy general manager Nishikant Sharma said.
