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Stock markets were little changed in Europe and on Wall Street Thursday after Ukraine claimed that Moscow fired an intercontinental ballistic missile, ratcheting up fears of further escalation in the war on Europe’s doorstep.Quarterly earnings from the AI chip giant Nvidia also gave investors reason for pause, failing to match the sky-high expectations of many analysts that might underpin further tech stock gains.But bitcoin resumed its march higher at around $97,000 on expectations that Donald Trump, spurred by cryptocurrency cheerleader Elon Musk, will bring it further into everyday use upon re-entering the White House in January.”Will Americans be able to use crypto to pay their taxes in future? There is a bigger possibility of this happening now than before the election,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB.But the mood was decidedly more cautious in mainstream markets after this week’s developments in the Ukraine war, with the US and Britain authorising Kyiv to make long-distance strikes into Russia, prompting warnings of retaliation by Moscow.Ukraine’s claim Thursday that Moscow had fired an intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time in combat added to uncertainty over what might come next.Oil prices also rose “as geopolitical tensions outweighed concerns over rising US crude supplies”, said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. “Geopolitical fears have also sent gold higher in recent sessions as investors look for some safety as Russia-Ukraine tensions escalate,” he added.Asian stocks had mostly fallen earlier Thursday under pressure from Nvidia’s earnings, though analysts said profit-taking was unlikely to dampen enthusiasm for the key AI player. “The negative market reaction to Nvidia’s results suggests investors are now focusing on the minutiae rather than the big picture,” said Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell.”That’s a natural evolution as the more people zoom in on a company, the more they learn about it, and the more granular detail they want.”Elsewhere on the corporate front, shares in Indian conglomerate Adani Group tanked after US prosecutors charged its owner Gautam Adani with handing out more than $250 million in bribes for key contracts.Flagship operation Adani Enterprises dived almost 20 percent, while several of its subsidiaries — from coal to media businesses — lost 10 to 20 percent. – Key figures around 1455 GMT -New York – Dow: UP 0.2 percent at 43,489.58 pointsNew York – S&P 500: DOWN 0.1 percent at 5,907.37New York – Nasdaq: DOWN 0.4 percent at 18,887.91London – FTSE 100: UP 0.5 percent at 8,123.38Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.1 percent at 7,190.62Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.3 percent at 19,065.93Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.9 percent at 38,026.17 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.5 percent at 19,601.11 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.1 percent at 3,370.40 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0531 from $1.0545 on WednesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2632 from $1.2652Dollar/yen: DOWN at 154.09 yen from 155.45 yenEuro/pound: UP at 83.38 pence from 83.33 penceBrent North Sea Crude: UP 1.3 percent at $74.07 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: UP 1.3 percent at $70.04 per barrel    

Kenyan President William Ruto sought Thursday to turn the page on a difficult year, cancelling controversial deals with India’s Adani Group and vowing to tackle corruption, police kidnappings and gender-based violence.With the country on edge over multiple issues, there was a heavy police presence around parliament in Nairobi ahead of Ruto’s annual state of the nation address.His speech did not shy away from the many controversies dogging his administration.The biggest shock was his announcement that India’s Adani Group would no longer be involved in plans to expand Kenya’s electricity network and its main airport, Jomo Kenyatta International.The Adani Group was to invest $1.85 billion in the Jomo Kenyatta airport and $736 million in state-owned utility KETRACO, despite claims of corruption in the procurement process.The final straw may have come when the Indian group’s founder Gautam Adani was charged in the United States on Wednesday with massive bribery and fraud.Ruto said his decision was based on “new information provided by investigative agencies and partner nations”.He also addressed the deep concern in Kenya over a spate of abductions by security forces following mass protests between June and August over an unpopular finance bill.Rights groups accuse the security forces of a brutal crackdown, with more than 60 people killed during the protests and dozens kidnapped in the following months, many of them tortured and some killed.Ruto said many of the detentions were legitimate actions against “criminals and subversive elements”. But he added: “I condemn any excessive or extrajudicial action which puts the life and liberty of any person at risk, including disappearances and threats to life.”He also addressed gender-based violence after reports that 97 women have been murdered in the last three months alone. To loud cheers from the women in parliament, Ruto called on all society to help raise boys “into morally upright men who will never need to affirm their masculinity at the expense of women”.- ‘Times are hard’ -Ruto won a hard-fought election in 2022 with a pitch to help the country’s poor.But large debts have left Kenya spending more on interest payments than health and education.While economic growth has remained relatively strong at 5.4 percent last year, a third of Kenya’s 52 million people live in poverty.”It is undeniable that for many Kenyans times are hard and the struggle to meet their basic daily needs is daunting,” Ruto said.But he listed a series of successes, including taming inflation — down from 9.6 percent to 2.7 percent over two years — stabilising the currency and increasing agricultural production. He also heralded a new health insurance scheme, which has been beset by technical difficulties since its launch last month, vowing that it would ultimately provide “accessible and affordable” healthcare across the country.Ruto came into his speech with an urgent need to reset his presidency after mounting criticism, including from church leaders, over abductions, the cost-of-living crisis and corruption.Recent weeks have also seen international condemnation over the forced extradition of foreign nationals kidnapped on Kenyan soil, including four Turkish refugees and the Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye.

Major stock markets diverged and the dollar was mixed Thursday as traders weighed escalating tensions in the Russia-Ukraine war.Bitcoin extended its surge, as the world’s biggest cryptocurrency struck a record high of over $98,000.Oil prices rallied “as geopolitical tensions outweighed concerns over rising US crude supplies”, noted Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown. “Geopolitical fears have also sent gold higher in recent sessions… as investors look for some safety as Russia-Ukraine tensions escalate,” he added.Kyiv accused Russia of launching an intercontinental ballistic missile attack at Ukraine for the first time on Thursday but without a nuclear warhead in a new escalation of the conflict. Awaiting Wall Street’s reopening, Asian and European stock markets travelled in different directions as blockbuster earnings late Wednesday from US chip titan Nvidia smashed forecasts but fell short of investor hopes.A driver of artificial-intelligence transitioning by companies, Nvidia’s market value has rocketed 200 percent over the last year to become the world’s-richest company.But its stock fell in after-hours trading.”The negative market reaction to Nvidia’s results suggests investors are now focusing on the minutiae rather than the big picture,” noted Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell.”That’s a natural evolution as the more people zoom in on a company, the more they learn about it, and the more granular detail they want.”Elsewhere on the corporate front, shares in Indian conglomerate Adani Group tanked after US prosecutors charged its industrialist owner Gautam Adani with handing out more than $250 million in bribes for key contracts.Flagship operation Adani Enterprises dived almost 20 percent, while several of its subsidiaries — from coal to media businesses — lost between 10 and 20 percent. On the upside, bitcoin closed in on $100,000 having soared since Donald Trump was elected US president in early November.”The bitcoin boom shows no signs of slowing, with the crypto king… edging closer to the coveted six-figure milestone,” added analyst Britzman.Trump’s “return to the White House is fuelling hopes of a more crypto-friendly federal stance”, he said.- Key figures around 1100 GMT -London – FTSE 100: UP 0.2 percent at 8,101.90 pointsParis – CAC 40: DOWN 0.4 percent at 7,170.84Frankfurt – DAX: FLAT at 18,998.49Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.9 percent at 38,026.17 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.5 percent at 19,601.11 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.1 percent at 3,370.40 (close)New York – Dow: DOWN 0.3 percent at 43,408.47 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0521 from $1.0545 on WednesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2632 from $1.2652Dollar/yen: DOWN at 154.39 yen from 155.45 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 83.28 pence from 83.33 penceBrent North Sea Crude: UP 1.7 percent at $74.06 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: UP 1.9 percent at $70.02 per barrel    

India’s Adani Group on Thursday called US charges that their billionaire tycoon founder Gautam Adani had paid more than $250 million in bribes “baseless”, as the opposition leader demanded his arrest.The stiff denial came after shares in the industrialist’s conglomerate nosedived nearly 20 percent in Mumbai, the morning after a bombshell indictment in New York accused him of deliberately misleading international investors.Adani is a close ally of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi and was at one point the world’s second-richest man, and critics have long accused him of improperly benefitting from their relationship.”The allegations made by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission against directors of Adani Green are baseless and denied,” the conglomerate said in a statement, adding that “all possible legal recourse will be sought”.But Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi said the businessmen should be taken into custody.”We demand that Adani be immediately arrested. But we know that won’t happen as Modi is protecting him,” Gandhi told reporters in New Delhi.”Modi can’t act even if he wants to, because he is controlled by Adani.”Wednesday’s indictment accuses Adani and multiple subordinates of paying huge sums of more than $250 million in bribes to Indian officials for lucrative solar energy supply contracts.The deals were projected to generate more than $2 billion in profits after tax over roughly 20 years.None of the multiple defendants named in the case are in custody.- ‘Lied’ -Adani and two other board members of his Adani Group “lied about the bribery scheme as they sought to raise capital from US and international investors”, US attorney Breon Peace said in a statement.The indictment drove steep losses in flagship listed unit Adani Enterprises and multiple other subsidiaries immediately after the Mumbai stock exchange reopened on Thursday. The conglomerate’s renewable energy subsidiary, Adani Green Energy, said it had decided to halt a planned bond sale “in light of these developments”. Gautam’s nephew and board member Sagar Adani, who is also named in the indictment, told AFP in October that there was “no political connection” between Adani Group and the Modi government. “We basically set up what the government really needs, in their best interest,” he added.”All the projects we got have not been granted by any concession but through an independent and transparent auction system.”Modi’s government has yet to comment on the charges but a spokesman for his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Amit Malviya, said the indictment appeared to implicate opposition parties rather than his own. “Don’t get needlessly excited,” Malviya added, in a post on social media platform X. – ‘Fear of reprisal’ -With a business empire spanning coal, airports, cement and media, the Adani Group has weathered previous corporate fraud allegations and suffered a similar stock crash last year.The conglomerate saw $150 billion wiped from its market value in 2023 after a shock report by short-seller Hindenburg Research accused it of “brazen” corporate fraud.It claimed Adani Group had engaged in a “stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades”.The report also said a pattern of “government leniency towards the group”, stretching back decades, had left investors, journalists, citizens and politicians unwilling to challenge its conduct “for fear of reprisal”.Gautam Adani, the family-run conglomerate’s founder, denied Hindenburg’s original allegations and called its report a “deliberate attempt” to damage its image for the benefit of short-sellers.He saw his net worth shrink by around $60 billion in the two weeks following the release of the report and he is currently ranked by Forbes as the world’s 25th-richest person.- ‘Abject failure’ -Adani Group’s rapid expansion into capital-intensive businesses has also raised alarms in the past, with Fitch subsidiary and market researcher CreditSights warning in 2022 that it was “deeply over-leveraged”.Jairam Ramesh, a spokesman for Gandhi’s Congress party, said Thursday that the indictment “vindicates” their demand for a parliamentary inquiry into Adani.Ramesh condemned what he called the “abject failure” of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to hold the Adani Group “to account for the source of its investments”.Adani, born to a middle-class family in Ahmedabad, Gujarat state, dropped out of school at 16 and moved to the financial capital Mumbai to find work in the city’s lucrative gem trade. After a short stint in his brother’s plastics business, he launched the flagship family conglomerate that bears his name in 1988 by branching out into the export trade. 

Shares in Indian conglomerate Adani tanked on Thursday after its industrialist owner Gautam Adani was charged by US prosecutors with handing out more than $250 million in bribes for key contracts.The painful losses at units of the Adani Group came as markets in most of Asia retreated as blockbuster earnings from chip titan Nvidia smashed forecasts but fell short of investor hopes, while bitcoin hit another record as it pushes towards the $100,000 mark.Several listed subsidiaries of the Adani empire, which spans coal, airports, cement and media, collapsed in early trade, with some losing as much as 20 percent.The charges are another blow to the firm, which was sent reeling last year when a bombshell report from US investment firm Hindenburg Research claimed the conglomerate had engaged in a “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades”.The Adani Group on Thursday called the allegations “baseless”. The conglomerate’s flagship Adani Enterprises dived almost 20 percent, while several of its subsidiaries lost between 10 and 20 percent. However, Mumbai’s Sensex index saw more limited losses, giving up around 0.6 percent.All eyes had been on the release from Nvidia, which has been at the forefront of a global tech surge that has helped push some markets to multiple records owing to voracious demand for all things linked to artificial intelligence.And once again, the firm topped expectations, announcing Wednesday that it made a $19 billion profit on record high revenue in the July-September quarter, while sales reached $35.1 billion — about $2 billion more than estimated.However, its shares fell in after-hours trade, even as chief executive Jensen Huang declared that the “age of AI is in full steam, propelling a global shift to Nvidia computing” and that its keenly anticipated Blackwell processing platform is in full production.Observers said investors had been hoping for an even bigger blowout report, with Bloomberg saying some had been hoping for sales of as much as $41 billion.Its shares — which have soared more than 200 percent year to date — dropped four percent at one point after-hours.- Peak Nvidia? -With Nvidia now the world’s most expensive listed company, its results have become a bellwether of the tech industry.”I have a feeling we’ve reached peak Nvidia,” said Pendal Group’s Amy Xie Patrick on Bloomberg Television. “This is a stock that beat analyst estimates but didn’t beat enough.”And SPI Asset Management’s Stephen Innes added: “The bigger question remains: where exactly is the bar for Nvidia now? With expectations veiled in sky-high optimism, even seasoned analysts struggle to get a clear read.”With so many portfolios already brimming with Nvidia stock, some investors might see this quarter’s results as a minor letdown.” But he added: “Still, the strength of the numbers, paired with the pipeline of Blackwell chip orders, is enough to keep the dream alive.”Most markets in Asia fell, with Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Jakarta, Taipei, Bangkok and Manila in negative territory.Still, Shanghai and Wellington rose.London, Frankfurt and Paris all rose.Bitcoin topped out at $97,892 as it continued its march to the $100,000 mark on expectations Donald Trump will push through measures to ease regulations on cryptocurrencies. It has surged around 40 percent since the US election at the start of the month.Investors have also been spooked by developments in the Ukraine war after Russia said Kyiv had fired US-supplied missiles into the country. That was followed by reports that UK-supplied rockets had also been used.Traders are also keeping watch on Trump’s picks for his cabinet, with the fingering of China hawk Howard Lutnick for commerce secretary fuelling worries of another painful trade war.- Key figures around 0810 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.9 percent at 38,026.17 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.5 percent at 19,601.11 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.1 percent at 3,370.40 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.2 percent at 8,102.55Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0538 from $1.0545 on WednesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2650 from $1.2652Dollar/yen: DOWN at 154.92 yen from 155.45 yenEuro/pound: UP at 83.30 pence from 83.33 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.9 percent at $69.37 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.8 percent at $73.39 per barrelNew York – Dow: DOWN 0.3 percent at 43,408.47 (close)

Sri Lanka’s new leader on Thursday backed a controversial IMF bailout, marking a U-turn from his election pledge to renegotiate the deal secured by his predecessor.Leftist President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who tightened his grip on power last week after winning a huge majority in the legislature following his own victory in September, vowed to maintain the IMF programme.Sri Lanka went to the IMF for a rescue package after the country defaulted on its $46 billion external debt in April 2022 during an unprecedented economic meltdown.The shortage of foreign exchange that left the country unable to finance even the most essential imports of food and fuel led to months of street protests and forced then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign.The $2.9 billion loan secured early last year required Colombo to sharply raise taxes, remove generous energy subsidies and agree to restructure more than 50 loss-making state enterprises.Dissanayake’s National People’s Power party had said it did not agree with the International Monetary Fund’s debt assessment and would renegotiate the bailout programme.But in his first address to the new parliament, where his party enjoys a two-thirds majority, Dissanayake said the economic recovery was too fragile to take risks.”The economy is in such a state that it cannot take the slightest shock… there is no room to make mistakes,” he said as he ruled out negotiations with either the IMF or creditors.”This is not the time to discuss if the terms are good or bad, if the agreement is favourable to us or not… The process had taken about two years and we cannot start all over again,” he said.The delayed third review of the four-year loan programme could be concluded by this weekend, with the finance ministry holding talks with a visiting IMF delegation in Colombo, he added.Sri Lanka expects the next tranche of about $330 million following an early approval from the board of the international lender of last resort.Dissanayake’s interim cabinet last month signed off on a controversial restructuring of $14.7 billion in foreign commercial credit tentatively agreed by predecessor Ranil Wickremesinghe.The debt restructuring is a key IMF demand to rebuild the island’s economy, which suffered its worst crisis in 2022 when it shrank 7.8 percent.The dissatisfaction with traditional politicians held responsible for the economic collapse was a key driver of Dissanayake’s electoral success.In June, the government concluded a deal with its bilateral lenders to restructure its official credit amounting to $6 billion, but formal agreements are yet to be signed.Under the deal announced on September 19, private creditors holding more than half of international sovereign bonds and foreign commercial loans to the South Asian nation agreed to a 27 percent haircut on their loans.They also agreed to a further 11 percent reduction on the interest owed to them.International sovereign bonds account for $12.5 billion and the balance of $2.2 billion is owed to the China Development Bank.

Sri Lanka’s new leader on Thursday backed a controversial IMF bailout, marking a U-turn from his election pledge to renegotiate the deal secured by his predecessor.Leftist President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who tightened his grip on power last week after winning a huge majority in the legislature following his own victory in September, vowed to maintain the IMF programme.The $2.9 billion loan secured early last year required Colombo to sharply raise taxes, remove generous energy subsidies and agree to restructure more than 50 loss-making state enterprises.Dissanayake’s National People’s Power party had said it did not agree with the International Monetary Fund’s debt assessment and would renegotiate the bailout programme.But in his first address to the new parliament, where his party enjoys a two-thirds majority, Dissanayake said the economic recovery was too fragile to take risks.”The economy is in such a state that it cannot take the slightest shock… there is no room to make mistakes,” he said as he ruled out negotiations with either the IMF or creditors.”This is not the time to discuss if the terms are good or bad, if the agreement is favourable to us or not… The process had taken about two years and we cannot start all over again,” he said.The delayed third review of the four-year loan programme could be concluded by this weekend, with the finance ministry holding talks with a visiting IMF delegation in Colombo, he added.Sri Lanka expects the next tranche of about $330 million following an early approval from the board of the international lender of last resort.Dissanayake’s interim cabinet last month signed off on a controversial restructuring of $14.7 billion in foreign commercial credit tentatively agreed by predecessor Ranil Wickremesinghe.The debt restructuring is a key IMF demand to rebuild the island’s economy, which suffered its worst crisis in 2022 when it shrank 7.8 percent.

The business empire of Gautam Adani is again in turmoil after the billionaire Indian tycoon was charged in the United States with paying exorbitant bribes to secure lucrative government contracts.- Who is Gautam Adani? -Adani, 62, is a publicity-shy school dropout of humble origins who rose to become fabulously rich.Moving to Mumbai in his teens to work sorting diamonds, he formed his own import-export business. His big break came in 1995 when he acquired a shipping port just as India’s economy was opening up.Today, Adani Group has interests in everything from power generation and Australian coal mines to cement, media, food, airport terminals and Israeli ports.The meteoric rise in the share prices of Adani’s units — the flagship Adani Enterprises rose more than 1,000 percent in five years — helped make the conglomerate staggeringly wealthy and fund further expansion.- What is his relationship with the government? -Adani is considered a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a fellow Gujarat native.The tycoon’s conglomerate offered Modi the use of a private company jet during the 2014 election campaign that swept his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to office.Two years ago, Adani executed a hostile takeover of broadcaster NDTV, a television news service considered one of the few media outlets willing to outwardly criticise Modi.Adani batted away press freedom fears, but told the Financial Times that journalists should have the “courage” to say “when the government is doing the right thing every day”.Critics, including Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, have accused Adani of improperly benefitting from his relationship with Modi to win business and avoid proper oversight — allegations Adani Group and its founder have consistently denied.- Why has he been charged? -Wednesday’s indictment in New York accuses Adani Group’s leadership of paying more than $250 million to Indian government officials to secure lucrative contracts worth more than $2 billion.It further charges Adani and seven other officials with lying about the bribery in order to raise capital from international investors, including those in the United States. “These offences were allegedly committed by senior executives and directors to obtain and finance massive state energy supply contracts through corruption and fraud at the expense of US investors,” US Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lisa Miller said in a statement. The indictment accuses Adani of personally meeting with an Indian government official to “advance” the bribery scheme, and of meeting with other defendants to “discuss aspects of its execution”. – What is the reaction in India? -Adani Group acknowledged the charges against its founder and several others on Thursday when it cancelled a US bond sale it initiated just hours before the indictment was published. But it has not otherwise commented on the allegations against the tycoon or his subordinates, none of whom have been taken into custody. Modi’s government has likewise yet to comment, but BJP spokesman Amit Malviya said in a statement on social media platform X that the indictment appeared to implicate opposition parties, rather than the prime minister’s. Jairam Ramesh, of India’s key opposition Congress Party, said the indictment “vindicates” their demand for a parliamentary inquiry into Adani.He added that the indictment demonstrated what he called the “abject failure” of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to properly investigate Adani Group in the past.- Has Adani Group faced scrutiny before? -Last year, Hindenburg Research — an activist US investment group that bets on stocks falling — accused Adani Group of committing “a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades”.This included funnelling money from offshore accounts controlled by Adani’s brother, Vinod Adani, into listed units to inflate their share prices.The Hindenburg report has sparked a huge sell-off in shares in Adani’s firms, wiping out more than $150 billion in market value in the following weeks.Adani’s finance chief dismissed the report as a “malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations that have been tested and rejected by India’s highest courts”.

Billionaire Indian industrialist Gautam Adani, whose business empire has been rocked by US bribery charges against him, is one of the corporate world’s great survivors.The tycoon — a close ally of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi — oversees a vast conglomerate encompassing coal, airports, cement and media operations.The US court charges that he paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes sent his companies’ shares plunging. But Adani has seen off big threats before.On New Year’s Day in 1998, Adani and an associate were reportedly kidnapped by gunmen demanding a $1.5 million ransom, before being later released at an unknown location.A decade later, he was dining at Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Palace hotel when it was besieged by militants, who killed 160 people in one of India’s worst terror attacks.Trapped with hundreds of others, Adani reportedly hid in the basement all night before he was rescued by security personnel early the next morning.”I saw death at a distance of just 15 feet,” he said of the experience after his private aircraft landed in his hometown Ahmedabad later that day.Adani, 62, differs from his peers among India’s mega-rich, many of whom are known for throwing lavish birthday and wedding celebrations that are later splashed across newspaper gossip pages. A self-described introvert, he keeps a low profile and rarely speaks to the media, often sending lieutenants to front corporate events. “I’m not a social person that wants to go to parties,” he told the Financial Times in a 2013 interview.- ‘Stop Adani’ -Adani was born in Ahmedabad, Gujarat state, to a middle-class family but dropped out of school at 16 and moved to financial capital Mumbai to find work in the lucrative gems trade. After a short stint in his brother’s plastics business, he launched the flagship family conglomerate that bears his name in 1988 by branching out into the export trade. His big break came seven years later with a contract to build and operate a commercial shipping port in Gujarat.It grew to become India’s largest at a time when most ports were government-owned — the legacy of a sclerotic economic planning system that impeded growth for decades and was in the process of being dismantled.Adani in 2009 expanded into coal, a lucrative sector for a country still almost totally dependent on fossil fuels to meet its energy needs, but a decision that brought greater international scrutiny as he rose rapidly up India’s rich list. His purchase the following year of an untapped coal basin sparked years of “Stop Adani” protests in Australia after dismay at the project’s monumental environmental impact. Similar controversies plagued his coal projects in central India, where forests home to tribal communities were cut down for mining operations.- ‘Extraordinary growth’ -Adani is considered to be close to Prime Minister Modi, a fellow Gujarat native, and offered the leader the use of a private company jet during the 2014 election campaign that swept him to power. The tycoon has invested in the government’s strategic priorities, in recent years inaugurating a green energy business with ambitious targets.In 2022, he completed a hostile takeover of broadcaster NDTV, a television news service considered one of the few media outlets willing to outwardly criticise Modi.Adani batted away press freedom fears, but told the Financial Times that journalists should have the “courage” to say “when the government is doing the right thing every day”.Last year a bombshell report from US investment firm Hindenburg Research claimed the conglomerate had engaged in a “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades”.Hindenburg said a pattern of “government leniency towards the group” stretching back decades had left investors, journalists, citizens and politicians unwilling to challenge its conduct “for fear of reprisal”. Adani Group denied wrongdoing and characterised the report as a “calculated attack on India” but lost $150 billion in market capitalisation in the weeks after the report’s release.Its founder saw his own net worth plunge by $60 billion over the same period, and he is now ranked by Forbes as the 25th-richest person globally.US prosecutors on Wednesday charged the tycoon and two other board members with paying hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes and hiding the payments from investors.The indictment accuses Adani Group’s leadership of bribing Indian government officials to secure lucrative government contracts. The conglomerate and its founder have yet to respond to the charges.

Shares in India’s Adani Enterprises slumped 20 percent at Thursday’s open after US prosecutors charged billionaire industrialist founder Gautam Adani with paying hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes and hiding the payments from investors.The steep losses in the Adani group’s main listed entity were matched by abrupt sell-offs and trading halts in its other publicly traded businesses, with Adani Power losing 11 percent and Adani Energy Solutions tanking 20 percent.The conglomerate’s founder, a close ally of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was at one point the world’s second-richest man, is alleged to have agreed to pay more than $250 million in bribes to Indian officials for lucrative solar energy supply contracts.The deals were projected to generate more than $2 billion in profits after tax over roughly 20 years.None of the multiple defendants in the case, including Adani, are in custody.A statement from Adani Group’s renewable energy subsidiary acknowledged the charges against Adani and two other board members in a brief statement. Adani Green Energy said it had decided to halt a planned bond sale “in light of these developments”, but did not offer further comment on the allegations. Founder Gautam and two other board members are accused in the indictment of orchestrating “an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars”, US attorney Breon Peace said in a statement.The trio “lied about the bribery scheme as they sought to raise capital from US and international investors”, he added.With a business empire spanning coal, airports, cement and media, the Adani Group has weathered previous corporate fraud allegations and suffered a similar stock crash last year.The conglomerate saw $150 billion wiped from its market value in 2023 after a bombshell report by short-seller Hindenburg Research accused it of “brazen” corporate fraud.It claimed Adani Group had engaged in a “stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades”.The report also said a pattern of “government leniency towards the group” stretching back decades, had left investors, journalists, citizens and politicians unwilling to challenge its conduct “for fear of reprisal”.Gautam Adani, the family-run conglomerate’s founder, denied Hindenburg’s original allegations and called its report a “deliberate attempt” to damage its image for the benefit of short-sellers.He saw his net worth shrink by around $60 billion in the two weeks following the release of the report and he is currently ranked by Forbes as the world’s 25th-richest person.- ‘Abject failure’ -Adani is considered a close associate of Prime Minister Modi, and opposition parties and other critics have long claimed their relationship helped him to unfairly win business and avoid proper oversight.Adani Group’s rapid expansion into capital-intensive businesses has also raised alarms in the past, with Fitch subsidiary and market researcher CreditSights warning in 2022 that it was “deeply over-leveraged.”Jairam Ramesh, of India’s key opposition Congress Party, said Thursday that the indictment “vindicates” their demand for a parliamentary inquiry into Adani.Ramesh condemned what he called the “abject failure” of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to hold the Adani Group “to account for the source of its investments”.Adani, born to a middle-class family in Ahmedabad, Gujarat state, dropped out of school at 16 and moved to the financial capital Mumbai to find work in the city’s lucrative gem trade. After a short stint in his brother’s plastics business, he launched the flagship family conglomerate that bears his name in 1988 by branching out into the export trade.