TotalEnergies CEO says it has not signed contract on new Adani hydrogen venture

European multinational energy major TotalEnergies has not yet signed any new contract announced last year to extend its partnership with Adani Group to the production of green hydrogen, CEO Patrick Pouyanne said on Wednesday. 

“It was announced, nothing was signed. It doesn’t exist,” Pouyanne said after the earnings presentation in Paris on Wednesday, referring to the new hydrogen venture with the Adani Group. “Mr Adani has other things to deal with now, it’s just good sense to pause things while the audit goes forward.” 

Pouyanne said the company was waiting for the result of an audit launched by the Indian conglomerate in response to allegations of financial irregularities by Hindenburg Research. 

Last week, France-headquartered TotalEnergies said that Adani Group will hire one of the 'big four' (Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC) accounting firms to carry out a general audit.  

Talking about TotalEnergies’s stakes in Adani Total Gas and Adani Green Energy, he said that they were still worth more than when the French company purchased them, a Reuters report noted.  

TotalEnergies has investments in several group companies of Adani, like 50 per cent in Adani Total, 37.4 per cent in Adani Total Gas, and 19.75 per cent in Adani Green Energy Limited. 

On Wednesday, TotalEnergies CEO Pouyanne added that TotalEnergies is not in charge of the financial health of the Adani group, with whom it has a number of joint ventures.  

“Adani Green is still worth twice as much as we invested, Adani Gas is still worth eight times more. Our accounting is healthy, there was due diligence before and due diligence after,” he said. 

He further added that its $3.1 billion investment in the gas and renewables companies in the Adani Group are healthy.

“These companies have assets and revenue” and are healthy, Pouyanne said at the earnings presentation in Paris on Wednesday. 

The French company conducted due diligence before and after investing in the Adani companies, he said.

He said that Adani had not requested financial support from TotalEnergies for existing projects.

It is to be noted that US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research released a report on Adani Group accusing it of stock manupulation and accounting fraud over the course of decades by using shell firms. Since then, the stocks of Adani Group tanked to new lows in the stock market. The stocks saw some recovery this week after almost eight sessions. The conglomerate on its part has repeatedly denied the allegations, and said the report is baseless.

Following the report, TotalEnergies came out with a detailed statement saying its investments in Adani’s entities were undertaken in full compliance with applicable – namely Indian – laws, and with TotalEnergies’ own internal governance processes. 

Last week, the France energy major said that the due diligence, which was carried out to TotalEnergies’ satisfaction, was consistent with best practices, and all relevant material in the public domain was reviewed, including the detailed disclosures to regulators required under applicable laws. 

(With agency inputs)

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