(Reuters) -India’s Adani Group will invest over 7.5 trillion rupees ($88.5 billion) in the northwestern state of Rajasthan, a top executive said on Monday, marking the group’s first major investment since the U.S. indictment of its billionaire founder.
The announcement, at an event in Jaipur city attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, comes less than a month after U.S. authorities accused founder Gautam Adani and some top executives of being part of a scheme to pay bribes worth $265 million to secure Indian power supply contracts.
The group has called the charges “baseless”.
The indictment has sparked political wrangling in India as many opposition parties accuse Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of favouring Adani and blocking investigations against him in India, allegations both have denied.
Modi’s BJP has said it had no reason to defend Adani and that the law will take its course.
The allegations have raised concerns among some partners and investors of the group, with at least one Indian state reviewing its power deal with Adani, and TotalEnergies halting further investments in the conglomerate.
However, Adani’s finance chief said last month that the group’s investment plans remained on track.
The latest investments – valued at more than half of the group’s $159 billion valuation – will be made in sectors including renewable energy, cement and logistics, said Karan Adani, managing director of Adani Ports.
Over 50% of the investments will be made over the next five years, Adani added.
Adani plans to set up four new cement plants to build additional capacity of six million metric tons per annum.
The group also plans to build the world’s biggest integrated green energy ecosystem involving 100 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy, two million tonnes of hydrogen and 1.8 GW of pumped hydro storage, Adani added.
The group’s clean energy arm Adani Green is already building an energy park in the western state of Gujarat with a production capacity of 50 GW by 2030.
($1 = 84.7200 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Sethuraman NR. Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Mark Potter)
