Nine Adani group stocks end lower; Adani Green drops nearly 4 pc

NEW DELHI: Nine Adani group stocks ended lower on Wednesday as the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has told a federal judge that its efforts to serve its complaint on Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani in the alleged bribery scheme are "ongoing", including through a request for assistance to the Indian authorities.

Shares of Adani Green Energy dropped 3.75 per cent, the groups' flagship firm Adani Enterprises declined 1.78 per cent, Ambuja Cements went lower by 1.36 per cent, Sanghi Industries fell 1.36 per cent, ACC slipped 0.93 per cent, Adani Wilmar dipped 0.90 per cent, Adani Energy Solutions (0.81 per cent), Adani Power (0.47 per cent) and Adani Ports (0.28 per cent) on the BSE.

In intra-day trade, shares of Adani Green Energy tanked 4.25 per cent and Adani Enterprises tumbled 4.30 per cent.

However, the stock of NDTV climbed 1.35 per cent and Adani Total Gas went up by 0.54 per cent.

The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex dipped 28.21 points or 0.04 per cent to settle at 75,939.18.

The NSE Nifty skidded 12.40 points or 0.05 per cent to 22,932.90.

The SEC submitted a status update on Tuesday to Judge Nicholas Garaufis at the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York regarding its efforts to serve its complaint on Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani.

The SEC said that both Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani "are located in India, and the SEC's efforts to serve them there are ongoing, including through a request for assistance to the Indian authorities to effect service under the Hague Service Convention for Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters."

The SEC said that its complaint dated November 20 last year alleges that Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani violated the anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws by "knowingly or recklessly making false and misleading representations concerning Adani Green Energy Ltd in connection with a September 2021 debt offering by Adani Green.

In November last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission had charged Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Cyril Cabanes, an executive of Azure Power Global Ltd, for conduct arising out of a massive bribery scheme.

In a parallel action, the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York unsealed criminal charges against Gautam and Sagar Adani and Cabanes, among other individuals connected to Adani Green and Azure Power.

Adani is being indicted by the US Department of Justice for his role in an alleged years-long scheme to pay USD 250 million bribes to Indian officials in exchange for favourable solar power contracts.

The Adani group has said that the allegations by the Department of Justice and the SEC are "baseless" and has denied them.