PARIS (Reuters) – TotalEnergies said on Friday it had “limited” exposure resulting from its stakes in various entities of the Indian conglomerate Adani, plunged into turmoil since accusations of accounting fraud.
“TotalEnergies’ exposure resulting from these investments is limited, since it represents 2.4% ($3.1 billion as of December 31, 2022) of the company’s capital employed and only $180 million of net operating income in 2022,” the oil group said in a statement.
TotalEnergies specifies that it has not carried out any revaluation in its accounts of its holdings in the listed companies Adani Total Gas Limited (in which it holds 37.4%) and Adani Green Energy Limited (19.75%).
TotalEnergies and Adani entered into an energy partnership in 2018, which was extended in 2020, but the Indian conglomerate has been facing accusations of accounting fraud from the American investment firm Hindenburg Research since last week.
The latter claims that Adani used fictitious offshore entities in tax havens in the Caribbean in particular “with the apparent aim of generating fictitious or illegitimate turnover and diverting money from listed companies”. It also ensures that the main listed companies of the group have a “substantial debt” putting the whole structure in a “precarious financial situation”.
The Indian group, which denies these accusations, has since experienced a real debacle on the stock market which raises questions about its impact on the entire financial system of the country. Sources told Reuters that India’s central bank had asked banks to pass on their exposure to the Adani Group.
The scandal also has political repercussions, Indian parliamentarians having asked for the creation of a commission of inquiry.
(Written by Blandine Hénault, with Aditya Kalra, Chris Thomas, Ankur Banerjee and Rae Wee in Singapore, editing by Laetitia Volga)
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