Indian parliament suspended after row over Adani bribery claims

Singapore/New Delhi — India’s parliament was suspended on Monday after opposition legislators disrupted it demanding a discussion over bribery allegations against the Adani Group and Adani dollar bond prices fell to almost one-year lows as investors and lenders weighed the case.

The Indian conglomerate’s billionaire chair, Gautam Adani, and seven other people were last week charged by US authorities for agreeing to pay about $265m in bribes to Indian government officials.

The charges related to alleged payments to obtain contracts that could yield $2bn profit over 20 years, as well as to develop India’s largest solar power project.

The charges also included making misleading statements to the public despite being made aware of the US investigation in 2023.

The Adani Group has said the accusations as well as those levelled by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in a parallel civil case are baseless and that it will seek “all possible legal recourse”.

Indian opposition parties, who have consistently targeted Adani for what they say is his proximity to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had said last week that they would raise the issue in parliament on Monday.

“As the parliament session begins, the first step the government should take is to have a detailed discussion on the Adani saga which has the potential of tarnishing India’s image at the global stage,” Mallikarjun Kharge, president of the main opposition Indian National Congress party, posted on X just as proceedings began in the upper house of parliament.

This is the demand of the opposition alliance Congress leads, as the “hard earned investments” of tens of millions of retail investors are at stake, Kharge said.

Jagdeep Dhankhar, vice-president of India and chair of the upper house, said he had received 13 notices from legislators demanding a discussion on the Adani issue but he could not allow them as they did not conform to rules.

Dhankhar asked Kharge to speak but was interrupted by legislators pressing their demand for a discussion, causing him to suspend the chambers briefly and later for the rest of the day.

Lower house

Similar scenes played out in the lower house a little later, forcing the speaker to suspend business for the day there as well.

Indian opposition parties have in the past accused the government of protecting and favouring Adani and his businesses, charges both deny.

Modi’s opponents said he has long-standing ties with Adani, going back nearly two decades to when Modi was chief minister of the western state of Gujarat, to which Adani also belongs.

They accuse the government of favouring the group in business deals, charges the government has rejected as “wild allegations”.

The government has not commented on the indictment but Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has said that it is for the Adani Group to deal with and defend itself and that the law will take its course.

The disruption in parliament came as Adani dollar bond prices fell as investors cut their exposure to the conglomerate and some bankers considered pausing fresh lending in the wake of the indictment.

Banks and regulators have been reviewing exposure to the ports-to-power conglomerate in the wake of the charges.

The Singapore banking sector’s overall exposure to the Adani Group, is small, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said on Monday.

“Banks have in place measures to review and manage their exposures to borrowers and counterparties,” a MAS spokesperson said in a statement.

DBS Group, Singapore’s biggest bank by assets, said in early 2023 that its exposure to the Adani Group was 1.3-billion Singapore dollars. DBS declined to comment in response to request from Reuters.

Some global banks are considering temporarily halting fresh credit to the company after the US indictment but maintaining existing loans, according to several bankers spoken to by Reuters, raising questions about its access to future funding.

“In the near term, the US indictment is likely to constrain the group’s access to financing, particularly in the offshore market,” a Lucror Analytics note published on Smartkarma said.

Cash balances of Adani portfolio companies stood at $6.33bn from the first half of this financial year ending March 2025, the company said.

The cash balances exceed long term debt repayments for the next 28 months, Adani said in a presentation on the credit and financial performance of its group companies, which it regularly shares after its quarterly results.

The crisis is the second in two years to hit the Adani Group, which was last year accused by short seller Hindenburg Research of improperly using offshore tax havens. The company denied those claims.

In Asian trade on Monday, some of the most liquid debts, issued by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone fell between 1 US cent and 2c, with similar selling in Adani Transmission debt.

Ports bonds maturing in 2027 were down 1.6c to 88.98c, having lost nearly 7c in face value since US prosecutors issued the charges last week.

Longer-dated Ports bonds were down on Monday and have lost 8c-10c in face value on the news.

Adani Transmission debt maturing in May 2036 fell 1.8c on Monday for a loss of more than 7c since Wednesday.

Adani group’s 10 listed stocks led by Adani Enterprises lost $27.9bn in market value over two sessions last week after the US charges.

On Monday, most Adani-backed stocks pared gains from early trade, with Adani Energy Solutions reversing course to trade down about 2%. Eight of 10 Adani stocks were trading in the green in morning trade. 

Reuters