The partnership between Indian conglomerate Adani and TotalEnergies to create a green hydrogen giant has been suspended. The decision was prompted by an audit commissioned by Adani, which was accused of accounting fraud. The CEO of TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanné, announced that the contract has not been signed and will not be signed.
Partnership announced in June 2022
In June 2022, TotalEnergies announced that it had entered into an agreement with Adani Enterprises Limited to acquire a 25% stake in Adani New Industries Limited. This new venture aimed to produce one million tons of green hydrogen per year by 2030 using new renewable electricity generation capacity.
Accusations of accounting fraud
The Indian conglomerate headed by Gautam Adani is currently facing accusations of brazen stock manipulation and a decades-long accounting fraud scheme. Adani announced that it would contract a general audit engagement with one of the world’s Big Four financial audit firms.
TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné said the partnership was “on pause.” TotalEnergies is waiting for the conclusions of the audit commissioned by Adani to shed light on the Indian group’s accounting situation before proceeding.
Limited financial exposure
However, TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné reiterated that his group’s financial exposure to the Indian conglomerate was limited and of the order of $3 billion. TotalEnergies has an interest in several Adani companies, for a total exposure of $3.1 billion as of December 31, 2022.
In conclusion, the partnership between Adani and TotalEnergies to create a green hydrogen giant has been suspended pending the findings of the audit commissioned by Adani. TotalEnergies said it was awaiting the audit’s conclusions before deciding what to do next.
