Adani pulls out of $553 million US loan deal for Colombo port

An entity majority-owned by embattled billionaire Gautam Adani, who was indicted in US courts last month, has pulled back from a loan pact valued at $553 million from the US International Development Finance Corporation, according to a company filing.

“The project will be financed through the company’s internal accruals and capital management plan. We have withdrawn our request for financing from the DFC,” read the filing issued Monday night, referencing the financing deal for a port terminal in Sri Lanka’s capital that’s being developed by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd.

The statement made no mention of the indictment of Adani, Asia’s second-richest man, and other executives of his Adani Group. They were indicted in US courts on charges last month that they paid or promised to pay more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to win solar energy contracts, and concealed the plan as they sought to raise money from US investors. The company has denied the US allegations.

The loan agreement for the terminal in Sri Lanka was signed last year amid US enthusiasm to offer an alternative to China for infrastructure investment in the developing world. It hadn’t yet yielded any disbursement of US financing. Still, construction has begun on the project, which also has local Sri Lankan partners.

The Development Finance Corp. and the White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the withdrawal statement.

Despite the indictment, the Adani Group has sought to show that it’s conducting business as usual. Its billionaire founder sat close to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a public conference Monday, where the group pledged tens of billions of dollars in fresh domestic investment.

DFC officials said previously that they were conducting due diligence and assessing the ramifications of the Department of Justice indictment before any decision on finalizing or canceling the Colombo port financing agreement.

Adani’s sprawling empire, which runs from construction projects to media properties, has been under fire since the DOJ’s announcement, with Kenya canceling $2.6 billion worth of airport and power transmission contracts the tycoon’s conglomerate had pitched for in the hours after the ruling.

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