Adani seeking to raise $4 bn to fund green hydrogen

Billionaire Gautam Adani’s Adani Group is seeking to raise as much as $4 billion to help develop manufacturing plants that would produce low-cost green hydrogen.

Adani New Industries Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of flagship company Adani Enterprises Ltd., will take the lead raising the money from domestic and international banks and is in early-stage talks with several lenders, the people said, asking not to be identified because the details are private.

France’s TotalEnergies SE and Adani said in June they plan to invest $5 billion to produce green hydrogen and related products in India, as the world’s third-largest polluting nation seeks to decarbonize. Gautam Adani has said in the past that 75% of the group’s forecast capital expenditure will be in green businesses and his companies plan to invest $20 billion over the next decade in renewables, green component manufacturing and related infrastructure.

Tycoons like Adani and his rival Mukesh Ambani are betting on green hydrogen as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks to establish India’s leadership in the transition toward cleaner technology.

Adani New Industries will conduct the fresh capital raising independent of Total, the people said. One of the first projects that the money will be put toward is a 1 million metric tons per annum green hydrogen facility being built in Gujarat, they said. Production from that plant is expected to start in 2027.

A successful project finance close would demonstrate the ports-to-power conglomerate is winning back the support of lenders after corporate fraud allegations levied in late January by Hindenburg Research. While Adani Group strongly denied the accusations, its bonds and shares plunged and most are yet to reach their prior peaks. A court-mandated probe by India’s market regulator is underway to assess if the conglomerate violated any local securities laws.