Adani Green’s Profit More than Doubles as Firm Expands Capacity

By Bloomberg

Jan 29, 2024

image is BloomburgMedia_S75JCDDWLU6800_29-01-2024_10-09-01_638420832000000000.jpg

Signage atop the Adani Group headquarters in Ahmedabad, India, on Saturday, July 15, 2023. Indian billionaire Gautam Adani's flagship firm raised 12.5 billion rupees ($152 million) through notes, its first such local-currency bond sale since it was targeted by short seller Hindenburg Research in January. Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) --

Adani Green Energy Ltd’s third-quarter net income more than doubled following an expansion of its generation capacity, aiding the company’s efforts to raise at least $2 billion of debt this year to fund growth.

India’s largest producer of renewable energy posted 2.56 billion rupees ($30.8 million) of net income in the three months through December, compared with 1.03 billion rupees a year earlier, the company said in a filing on Monday.

Adani Green aims to spend $22 billion to expand its operational capacity by more than five times by 2030, aiding the government’s efforts to decarbonize India’s fossil fuel-driven economy. Rising profits will also help the company win back investors’ trust as it seeks to leave behind the damning allegations made by a US shortseller last year.

Strong electricity demand is underpinning Adani Green’s expansion plans. It added nearly 16% capacity last year, and energy sales rose by more than a quarter in the three months through December, it said in a presentation earlier this month.

A report by the shortseller Hindenburg Research released in January 2023, accusing billionaire Gautam Adani’s conglomerate of stock price manipulation and accounting fraud, jolted the group. As concerns related to corporate governance waned, Adani Green led the group’s recovery, securing investments from TotalEnergies SE and Qatar Investment Authority. The group has repeatedly denied the allegations.

“With the recently announced equity and debt capital raise, we have put in place the capital management framework for a well-secured growth path to the targeted 45 gigawatt capacity by 2030,” Chief Executive Officer Amit Singh said in a post-earnings press statement.

The Adani Group, which still relies heavily on coal for its revenues, has set some of India’s most ambitious clean energy goals, ranging from renewable electricity projects to the manufacturing of electrolyzers for green hydrogen production, solar panels and wind turbines.

By Rajesh Kumar Singh