Adani Group announces $88bn investment to develop Rajasthan

India’s Adani Group will invest more than 7.5-trillion rupees ($88.5bn) in the northwestern state of Rajasthan, a top executive said on Monday, marking the group’s first major investment since the US indictment of its billionaire founder.

The announcement, at an event in Jaipur city attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, comes less than a month after US authorities accused founder Gautam Adani and some top executives of being part of a scheme to pay bribes worth $265m to secure Indian power supply contracts.

The group has called the charges “baseless”.

The indictment has sparked political wrangling in India as many opposition parties accuse Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of favouring Adani and blocking investigations against him in India, allegations both have denied.

Modi’s BJP has said it had no reason to defend Adani and that the law will take its course.

The allegations have raised concerns among some partners and investors of the group, with at least one Indian state reviewing its power deal with Adani and TotalEnergies halting further investments in the conglomerate.

However, Adani’s finance chief said last month that the group’s investment plans remained on track.

Cement and green energy

The latest investments — valued at more than half the group’s $159bn valuation — will be made in sectors including renewable energy, cement and logistics, said Karan Adani, MD of Adani Ports.

More than 50% of the investments will be made over the next five years, Adani said, and there are plans to set up four new cement plants to build additional capacity of 6-million tonnes per annum.

The group also plans to build the world’s biggest integrated green energy ecosystem involving 100GW of renewable energy, 2-million tonnes of hydrogen and 1.8GW of pumped hydro storage, Adani said.

The group’s clean energy arm, Adani Green, is already building an energy park in the western state of Gujarat with a production capacity of 50GW by 2030.

Reuters