Dec 27, 2022
No new commitments till volatility lasts: Adani Group

Adani Enterprises, which had scaled up operations at a breakneck speed over the past few years, will refrain from bidding for new projects till the time the volatility in the market remains, one of its top officials said.

“We will not make new commitments till we settle this volatility period,” Jugeshinder Singh, group CFO, Adani Group, told analysts in a post earnings call. He, however, added that the group will come out with a formal plan over the next six weeks as part of the March quarter results.

“Our investments in the core infrastructure sector, which includes energy and utility and transport and logistics portfolio, will continue as planned. However, given the volatility we will moderate certain accelerations we had budgeted in the capex profile and we will now continue with ordinary courses of business-based capex,” Singh added.

Some of the big-ticket projects that the company has bagged include the `16,700-crore Navi Mumbai International Airport and a lion’s share of the Ganga Expressway, which is worth `17,000 crore. Such projects will go ahead as planned and the current volatility will not have any impact on them, the CFO said.

“There is no change in ongoing projects. Navi Mumbai Airport will be completed on schedule which is December 2024,” Singh added.

The company has 14 road projects, including three under the Ganga Expressway, under its belt. Only one of these projects has started toll collection, while four projects have project completion status ranging between 1% and 2%. The company will not be making any significant bidding in new road projects.  

Reports on Tuesday stated that the Adani group has appointed Grant Thornton for independent audits of its companies in a bid to discredit claims by short-seller Hinderberg Research, which hit the value of its stocks and bonds.

Last week, France’s TotalEnergies said it has put on hold participation in Adani’s $50-billion hydrogen project pending results of an audit launched following allegations levelled by Hindenburg. The French oil giant was to take a 25% stake in Adani’s hydrogen venture.

“The first stage of the (hydrogen) project was related to integrated manufacturing and that is continuing. The MoU with Total was signed in May. Engineering, marketing and technical due diligence is continuing and that work takes time on large projects like this and Total is doing it. Once that work is completed, we will come back and revisit,” Singh added.

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