Toxic Bonds initiative sent letters to 51 major Adani investors - including Adani’s largest bondholders Blackrock, TIAA, PIMCO and abrdn - urging them to deny new debt to the Adani Group and to divest all current holdings from the conglomerate. 

This letter came shortly after the publication of Hindenburg Research’s explosive report, which alleged  “brazen accounting fraud, stock manipulation and money laundering” across the group and resulted in a free fall of more than $140 billion for Adani. It has led to investigations into the group’s finances and exposes about its murky dealings. 

One of the biggest skeletons tumbling out of Adani’s cupboard has been revelations - long speculated but now enumerated - regarding the heavily interconnected nature of Adani’s various businesses. Of particular concern for investors which operate with an ESG mandate is a recent report revealing that Adani is using stock from its green companies as collateral to finance the Carmichael coal mine in Australia. 

In recent years, Adani has been keen to portray itself as the green energy champion of India by announcing investment of $70 billion in green projects. Generally sidestepped in the investor presentations about its green ambitions is the fact that it is investing far more in new fossil fuel projects. To fund these project Adani has issued more than $1.25 billion in green bonds in the global market in the last 3 years. 

However, increasing evidence that Adani’s green ventures are being used to help prop up its coal mining activities should worry investors that that green investments are not safely ring fenced within the Adani group.

We decided to share a video with Adani’s investors to remind them that they can no longer keep sticking their heads in the sand.

The #StopAdani movement, frontline Indigenous communities, and environmental and human rights advocates have been warning about Adani’s dodgy corporate behaviour for years, and have been calling on financial institutions to steer clear of Adani due to their coal expansion, and violation of human rights. 

Furthermore, over 60,000 people have called banks and investors like Blackrock, TIAA, PIMCO and abrdn to drop Adani. The group's devastating coal expansion has only been made possible because of trillions in financing from the world's most prestigious financial institutions. It will only be stopped once these investors pull out.

Investors who responded

The responses we have so far received from a few investors such as Deutsche Bank AG, AXA IM and Jupiter Fund Management Plc can be seen below-

Investors who are yet to respond: