US development agency ‘assessing ramifications’ on Adani’s Sri Lanka project
WASHINGTON – A US agency said on Sunday (24) that it is reviewing the impact of the Department of Justice (DOJ) bribery allegations against the founder of India’s Adani Group on the agency’s prior agreement to lend more than $550 million to a Sri Lankan port development backed by the group.
The US International Development Finance Corp (DFC) last November said it would provide $553 million in financing for the port terminal project in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. The project is partly owned by the Adani Group.
Federal prosecutors in New York on Wednesday (20) announced that Gautam Adani, the billionaire founder of the Adani Group, and seven other individuals had been indicted on charges of paying about $265 billion in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain contracts expected to yield $2 billion of profit over 20 years and develop India’s largest solar power plant project.
“DFC is aware of the recent allegations related to Adani and is actively assessing the ramifications in light of the recent DOJ announcement,” an official with the development agency said in a statement.
“We are committed to ensuring that our projects and partners uphold the highest standards of integrity and compliance,” the official said.
The agency said that no funds have yet been disbursed under the loan commitment.
Bloomberg News first reported the news on the DFC on Sunday.
The Adani Group did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside regular business hours on Sunday.
The Adani Group has said the Justice Department accusations as well as those levelled by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in a parallel civil case are “baseless and denied” and said it will seek “all possible legal recourse.”
Bloomberg reported that the DFC had said it was still conducting due diligence on the project, and that it hasn’t reached a final agreement on the loan. It quoted an official as saying “The project has not reached financial close or signed a loan agreement.”
The port terminal in Colombo being developed by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd would have been DFC’s largest infrastructure investment in Asia and was meant to boost America’s presence in the region to counter China’s dominance.
According to DFC officials, the bribery allegations don’t implicate the Adani subsidiary involved in the Sri Lanka project.
Separately, local media reported that Sri Lanka was reviewing the Adani Group’s planned wind power projects in the country, with the cabinet expected to discuss the proposal in the coming weeks. The government is currently evaluating all aspects of the project, including its financial feasibility and environmental impact, the spokesman told the newspaper.
-Reuters/ENCL
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