Adani stocks fall 2% to 4% on report of US bribery probe

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Investing.com– Shares of listed firms under the Adani Group fell on Monday after Bloomberg reported that the U.S. government had widened its investigation of the conglomerate over suspicions of bribery.

Adani Enterprises Ltd (NS:), the group’s flagship firm, fell nearly 4% in early trade, while Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (NS:) shed 2.9%. Adani Power Ltd (NS:), Adani Green Energy Ltd (NS:) and Adani Energy Solutions Ltd (NS:) lost between 2% and 3%.

They outpaced losses in the broader index, which fell 0.3%. 

Bloomberg reported on Friday that the U.S. government was looking into the conduct of founder and Chairman Gautam Adani, and whether Adani entities or affiliates of the company were involved in bribing Indian officials for preferential treatment on energy projects. 

The U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York, as well as the Department of Justice’s fraud unit, were handling the investigation, which is also looking into Indian renewable energy company Azure Power. 

Adani said it was not aware of any investigation against the firm or its founder. 

Bloomberg report comes over a year after Hindenburg took aim at Adani

The Bloomberg report comes over a year after a report from short seller Hindenburg Research accused Adani of fraud and market manipulation. The conglomerate had denied the allegations, and was also recently cleared by India’s securities regulator. 

While the Hindenburg report had initially spurred losses north of $100 billion in Adani shares, they had since recovered and even surpassed levels seen before the Hindenburg report.

Still, data on Monday showed Adani’s dollar-denominated bonds saw steep losses in the wake of the Bloomberg report, given that it ties into some allegations raised by the Hindenburg note.