US agency conducting due diligence on Adani’s Sri Lanka project, Bloomberg reports

NEW YORK: NOVEMBER 25: A US agency that agreed to lend more than $500 million to a Sri Lanka port development backed by the Adani Group said it is still conducting due diligence on the project in the wake of bribery allegations against the group’s billionaire founder Gautam Adani and other top executives, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday. The US International Development Finance Corporation has not reached a final agreement on the loan, an official with the agency said in an email to Bloomberg.

“We continue to conduct due diligence to ensure that all aspects of the project meet our rigorous standards before any loan disbursements are made”, the official said, according to the report.

Last November, the agency 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 India’s Adani Group.

US authorities have charged Adani and 7 other people with agreeing to pay bribes to Indian Government officials to obtain contracts that could yield $2 billion of profit over 20 years as well as to develop India’s largest solar power project.

The Adani Group has said the accusations as well as those leveled by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in a parallel civil case are “baseless and denied” and that it will seek “all possible legal recourse”.

The US International Development Finance Corporation and the Adani Group did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside regular business hours.

(Agencies)