Our work

Tim Buckley looks at today’s reporting of explosive new allegations and hard evidence that a web of associates of the Adani Group have engaged in deliberate stock price manipulation and insider trading. An internal document trail details extensive use of tax havens instructed by associates of Gautam Adani’s brother, Vinod Adani, who owns or is associated with multiple offshore companies at the centre of some of the Group’s most high-profile deals. Read more

We take a close look at Budget 2023/24, finding the new $4bn in funding around renewables leaves us short of the capital needed to position Australia as a cleantech superpower and respond to the US IRA, as new figures from China show a staggering surge in RE installs Read more

An exciting report has emerged that India’s draft new National Electricity Policy (NEP) has proposed that India stop building of new coal-fired power plants beyond those already under construction. Without getting too excited preemptively, this strategic shift is potentially a critical, globally significant milestone in decarbonisation. Read more

This month, the Government of India announced exciting plans to treble renewable energy tenders to 50GW pa so as to add 250GW of RE by 2027/28. Brookfield of Canada also announced a US$1bn investment in Avaada Energy, which has aggressive solar expansion plans, following a number of significant injections of global capital into Indian renewables this year. We examine the strong momentum building after 3 years of inaction in the country’s energy transformation – traction which now requires government policy ambition and consistency to sustain. Read more

As major investors bail and ASX-listed global fund manager GQG throws flailing Adani a US$2bn lifeline, questions are raised about Australian superfunds’ investments in the conglomerate. If the Hindenburg allegations are proven, the funds are effectively using their investors’ money to bankroll the largest corporate con in history – not to mention the biggest developer of new coal in the world. Read more

Our 6th and latest instalment on the Hindenburg washup: While Adani is the biggest private coal developer in the world, the Adani Group had also pledged to invest US$70bn in green industries this decade, suggesting at face value that a setback for Adani is a setback to India’s energy transition. CEF would argue otherwise. Prior to January 2023, Adani was, at best, walking both sides of the street, deploying greenwashing to raise foreign capital, and leveraging global capital markets to expand its fossil fuel interests as it leveraged crony capitalism at home. Read Tim Buckley’s latest analysis. Read more

The fifth and latest in our analyses of Adani in the light of research firm Hindenburg’s allegations of “the largest con in world history”. The Adani family conglomerate proudly professes its exceptionally high environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings. Its slogan says it all: “Growth with Goodness”. But while Adani group is one of the largest investors in green energy, it is also the largest private developer of new coal mines and coal-fired power plants in the world, and has won Government of India support to massively expand its fossil fuel related exposures with new coal-to-plastics plants, LNG import terminals, oil bunkers and gas reticulation systems throughout India. Tim Buckley looks at whether the green claims stack up Read more

CEF has tracked the Adani family for a decade, and their elevation has one key cornerstone – crony capitalism. Our close examination of financial and contractual interactions between government entities and the Adani Group shows that, to become the first amongst equals in India, the Adani family has had considerably more than its fair share of support, particularly since 2014. While the list is very long, in this analysis, Tim Buckley outline some examples below. Read more

Tim Buckley with some further reflections on the Adani crisis, noting the allegations from Hindenburg are not going to go away. For its part, Hindenburg is very comfortable with its legal position. They have effectively issued an open invitation to Adani to sue if they want to experience discovery. That challenge from Wall Street gives credibility to the substance of the report. Read more

Tim Buckley notes there are striking parallels between the origins of the collapse of Germany company Wirecard under the weight of the biggest corporate fraud in that country in decades, and the Adani crisis triggered by the Hindenburg report, including the failures of regulatory scrutiny. While Wirecard went bankrupt when its corporate wrongdoing was finally exposed, the Adani allegations are as yet unproven, and require close examination by the US SEC and Securities and Exchange Board of India. Read more

Tim Buckley has been a keen watcher of Adani for over a decade. Read his full analysis of the explosive allegations by US based research firm and activist short seller Hindenburg that the conglomerate has engaged in the “largest con in corporate history” involving accounting fraud, insider trading, and money laundering. Do the allegations stack up, what needs to be done, and what are the implications for Australia and Adani’s Carmichael coal mine, the subject of a massive decade long grassroots campaign that deprived the company of its social licence here. Read more

An historic week saw the federal govt legislate coal and gas price caps and bill rebates under its energy price relief plan, with an additional commitment to electrify everything, and a staggering endorsement from the market as prices on the electricity futures market dropped 50%. We also look at progress on decarbonisation in India, finding a doubling of RE installs rate is needed to hit Modi’s target of 450GW by 2030. Read more