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The history of Adani

 


Some context-free business history here. 

The Adani Group is a conglomerate based in India and founded in  1988 by Gautam Adani. 

It began as a commodities trading concern, with an especial interest in trading in the metals. But that didn't really stick as a core corporate identity. 

Nowadays more than 60 percent of its income comes from coal related lines of business. This includes the mining of coal as well as the production of electricity in coal-fired plants. 

It has engaged in aggressive expansion of late. So much so that in August 2022, CreditSights (a unit of Fitch, the big ratings company) warned that all the rapid expansion threatened the group's cash flow and credit metrics. 

Since soon thereafter, the Indian securities regulator, SEBI, has been investigating Adani on suspicions that it is pumping up the value of its stock with accounting shenanigans. In May 2023, the country's Supreme Court effectively ordered Adani to wrap up its investigation by August. This seems to have resulted in the wind-down of THAT investigation, while facilitating the creation of a new one. 

With all this as background, one can perhaps understand why the new government of neighboring Bangladesh doesn't want anything to do with Adani.  It is in a contract for electricity and it wants out. This is not a "we want something more green than coal running our businesses and homes."  It is, "we think you're ripping us off.'  

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