TotalEnergies to halt Adani investments, GQG hopeful

Two of the largest investors in Adani Group companies have made contrasting investment decisions after US authorities indicted Gautam Adani and two other directors in a $250 million bribery case.

- Nehal Chaliawala & Varun Sood

French oil giant TotalEnergies, which has invested $3.85 billion in Adani Group companies since 2019, said on Monday that it had decided to hold off on new investments until the allegations are clarified.

US-based GQG Partners affirmed its faith in the Adani Group, expecting that the Indian government would back the ports-to-retail conglomerate. The American investor, though, added in a note to investors on 21 November that it expects the investigations to be long-drawn, hurting the group's ability to borrow for foreign capital.

"We feel the Indian government will maintain its support for Gautam Adani as he is the most important infrastructure developer in the country by order of magnitude," GQG Partners said in its note, which Mint has reviewed.

"As investors in a broad area of companies, globally, we take any indictment very seriously. That said, we recognize the distinction of the allegations of the individuals vs the companies. We believe the fundamentals of the companies we are invested in remain sound," said GQG Partners.

GQG Partners had come as a white knight when the Adani Group's stocks were in free fall following US short-seller Hindenburg Research's allegations in January 2023 of stock manipulation and accounting fraud by the Ahmedabad-based conglomerate.