TotalEnergies (PAR: TTE) plans to invest $300 million in a joint venture with Adani Green Energy Ltd., marking the first public deal between the French oil giant and Gautam Adani since a short-seller leveled fraud allegations against the Indian billionaire’s business empire.
Total will hold 50% stake in the new firm, with Adani Green holding the rest, according to an exchange filing Wednesday. This investment is part of the companies’ drive to expand their portfolio of clean energy projects. Bloomberg reported the investment plans last week citing people familiar with the developments.
The deal increases Total’s presence in India’s fast-growing energy market, while giving Adani Green more means to develop new renewable energy projects. It would also see Total deepen its ties with Adani Green, which it’s already the second largest shareholder of with a 19.75% stake, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The latest announcement also shows the conglomerate’s growing ability to attract global investments again. After Hindenburg Research accused the Adani Group of “brazen” market manipulation and accounting fraud earlier this year, Total put on hold a plan to develop about $5 billion of green hydrogen projects with Adani Enterprises Ltd. The Adani Group strongly denied the allegations by the short-seller.
TotalEnergies said in a statement that the transaction “will reinforce its strategic alliance” with Adani Green and “support the company in becoming the Indian leader of renewable energy, with a target of 45GW renewable power capacity by 2030.”
Solar, Wind Projects
The new JV company will house a 1,050-megawatt portfolio consisting of solar and wind projects, less than a third of which are currently operational, according to the filing.
The French energy producer and the Indian conglomerate had announced a partnership in June last year to fund billions of dollars worth of green hydrogen development in India as the world’s third-largest polluter seeks to decarbonize.
Total, which has partnered with Adani Group in the past, announced their first joint venture in 2020 and then a $2.5 billion stake purchase in 2021. It has been looking to boost its clean-energy output, in an effort to mollify shareholders demanding greater efforts to fight climate change. That aspiration dovetails with India’s ambitions to become a net zero carbon nation by 2070 and curb its reliance on oil and coal.
TotalEnergies’ Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanné called India’s renewable power industry “a very interesting market by its size and growth” and said in a statement Wednesday that the latest partnership with Adani Green “will enable us to speed up our development.”
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