COLOMBO (AFP) – Indian conglomerate Adani Group’s port project in Sri Lanka will go ahead despite United States (US) charges against its founder and sudden changes to its financing, the island nation said yesterday.
A bombshell indictment in New York last month accused billionaire tycoon Gautam Adani and several colleagues of deliberately misleading international investors as part of a bribery scheme.
The charges sent Adani stocks into freefall and again raised questions over corporate governance at the family firm, whose founder is considered a close ally of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But Sri Lankan ports minister Bimal Ratnayake said the allegations against Adani had no bearing on the deep-sea container terminal project in the capital Colombo.
“The problem between Adani and the US… is not our concern,” he told reporters during a tour of the port on Thursday night.
“It is of high importance for us that western container terminal development by Adani goes ahead.” Ratnayake said the project was necessary to generate revenue for the Sri Lankan economy, still teetering after an unprecedented crisis and foreign debt default.
