Adani Group

The Adani Group commenced as a commodity trading firm in 1988 and diversified into the import and export of multi-basket commodities. With a capital of 5 lakhs, the company was established as a partnership firm with the flagship company, Adani Enterprises Limited, previously Adani Exports Limited.[14] In 1990 the Adani Group developed its own port in Mundra to provide a base for its trading operations. It began construction at Mundra in 1995. In 1998, it became the top net foreign exchange earner for India Inc.[15] The company began coal trading in 1999 followed by a joint venture in edible oil refining in 2000 with the formation of Adani Willmar.[7]

The group's second phase started with the creation of large infrastructure assets. The company established a portfolio of ports, power plants, mines, ships and railway lines inside and outside India.

Adani handled 4 Mt of cargo at Mundra in 2002, becoming the largest private port in India. Later in 2006, the company became the largest coal importer in India with 11 Mt of coal handling.[15] The company expanded its business in 2008 purchasing Bunyu Mine in Indonesia which has 180 Mt of coal reserves. In 2009 the firm began generating 330 MW of thermal power. It also built edible oil refining capacity in India of 2.2 Mt per annum.[15] Adani Enterprises became the largest trading house in India importing coal with a market share 60%. It also supplies coal to NTPC Limited, India. The Adani group became India's largest private coal mining company after Adani Enterprises won the Orissa mine rights in 2010.[16] Operations at the Port of Dahej commenced in 2011 and ts capacity subsequently grew to 20 Mt. The company also bought Galilee Basin mine in Australia with 10.4 gigatonnes (Gt) of coal reserves. It also commissioned 60 Mt of handling capacity for the coal import terminal in Mundra, making it the world's largest.[17] In addition, in the same year, the Adani group also bought Abbot Point port in Australia with 50 Mt of handling capacity. It commissioned India's largest solar power plant with a capacity 40 MW. As the firm achieved 3,960 MW capacity, it became the largest private sector thermal power producer in India. In 2012 The company shifted its focus on three business clusters – resources, logistics and energy.[18]

Adani Power emerged as India's largest private power producer in 2014.[19] Adani Power's total installed capacity then stood at 9,280 MW.[20] The Mundra Port, Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd. (APSEZ), handled 100 Mt in fiscal 2013–14. On 16 May of the same year, Adani Ports acquired Dhamra Port on East coast of India for ₹5,500 crore (equivalent to ₹71 billion or US$990 million in 2019).[21] Dhamra Port was a 50:50 joint venture between Tata Steel and L&T Infrastructure Development Projects, which has now been acquired by Adani Ports. The port began operations in May 2011 and handled a total cargo of 14.3 Mt in 2013–14.[22] With the acquisition of Dhamra Port, the Group is planning to increase its capacity to over 200 Mt by 2020.[23][24]

In 2015 the Adani Group's Adani Renewable Energy Park signed a pact with the Rajasthan Government for a 50:50 joint venture to set up India's largest solar park with a capacity of 10,000 MW.[25] In November 2015, the Adani group began construction at the port in Vizhinjam, Kerala.[26]

Adani Aero Defence signed a pact with Elbit-ISTAR and Alpha Design Technologies to work in the field of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in India in 2016. In April, Adani Enterprises Limited secured approval from the Government of Gujarat to begin work on building a solar power equipment plant. In September, Adani Green Energy (Tamil Nadu), the renewable wing of the Adani Group, began operations in Kamuthi in Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu with a capacity of 648 MW at an estimated cost of ₹4,550 crore (equivalent to ₹53 billion or US$740 million in 2019). In the same month, the Adani Group inaugurated a 648 MW single-location solar power plant. It was the world's largest solar power plant at the time it was set up[27] In December, the Adani Group inaugurated a 100 MW solar power plant in Bhatinda, the largest in Punjab. The plant was built at a cost of ₹640 crore (equivalent to ₹740 crore or US$100 million in 2019).

On 22 December 2017, the Adani Group acquired the power arm of Reliance Infrastructure for ₹18,800 crore (equivalent to ₹210 billion or US$3.0 billion in 2019).[28]

The company began as Adani Exports Limited in 1988 trading commodities. In March 1993, the partnership company M/s. Adani Exports was converted into a limited company – Adani Enterprises Limited. Run by Gautam Adani the company originally exported dyes and intermediates, plastic products, agricultural products and frozen food to about 28 countries around the world. Adani Management Consultancy Services was amalgamated with the company in 1994.[29]

With major interests in logistics and energy, the enterprise handles the mining, trading, gas distribution, solar and agribusiness divisions of the Group. Adani Gas, a wholly owned subsidiary executes the gas distribution business. Its real estate activities are managed by Adani Infrastructure & Developers Private Limited.[30][31] The Adani Enterprises-Mining is the only mining company in the list of top 50 organisations that has bagged the India's Great Place to Work certification two years in a row.[32] AEL is an incubator for infrastructure companies. All of the below listed companies have been demerged from AEL once they stabilised revenues with a stable business model. AEL's current incubation portfolio includes - Mining Services, Integrated Coal Management, Airports, Road, Rail / Metro, Water, Data Center, Solar Mfg, & Defence.

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ) is the largest private port company and special economic zone in India. The company is headed by Karan Adani, CEO of APSEZ. The company's operations include Port management, logistics and the special economic zone. The company operates at the following ports: Mundra, Dahej, and Hazira, Gujarat; Dhamra, Odisha; Kattupalli, Tamil Nadu; and Vizhinjam, Kerala.

In addition, the Adani Group manages terminals at the ports of Mormugao, Ennore, Vishakhapatnam and Kandla (Tuna Takra). [33] The logistics arm was initially promoted by the Mundra Port Infrastructure Development Company Limited, an enterprise of the Government of Gujarat and Adani Port Limited. The company began operations at the Mundra Port in October 1998. With a Concession Agreement with the Government of Gujarat and the Gujarat Maritime Board in February 2001I, the group was granted the right to operate and develop the Mundra Port situated at the Navinal Island in the Kutch region for 30 years.[34]

Established in August 1996 as Adani Power Limited, the company gained a certificate of commence business in September of the same year. The company is run by Gautam Adani, Rajesh S. Adani[35] and Adani Enterprises Limited. The company develops and maintains power projects in India. The firm has a combined installed capacity of 10,440 MW with four thermal power projects across India. The company runs the following subsidiaries: Adani Power Maharashtra Limited, Adani Power Rajasthan Limited, Adani Power Dahej Limited, Mundra Power SEZ Limited and Adani Power (Overseas) Limited[36][37]

In 2014, Adani Power overtook Tata Power to become India's largest power producer.[38] The third phase of Adani Power Ltd's (APL) thermal power plant at Mundra in Gujarat is the world's first coal-fired plant to receive carbon credits from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)[39] Adani Power's Udupi Power Plant has been conferred with the Power Award by the Government of Karnataka.[40]

Integrated in 2013, Adani Transmission Limited handles the commissioning, operations and maintenance of electric power transmission systems.[41] The holding company holds, operates and maintains 8,511[42] circuit kilometres of transmission lines that range from 400 to 765 kilovolts. The total transmission capacity of the company is 16,200 MW.[43] The company has the following subsidiaries: Maharashtra Eastern Grid Power Transmission Company Limited, Maru Transmission Service Company Limited, Adani Transmission (India) Limited, Hadoti Power Transmission Service Limited, Raipur-Rajnandgaon-Warora Transmission Limited, Sipat Transmission Limited, and Chhattisgarh-WR Transmission Limited.

Largest listed pure-play renewable power producer in India with portfolio of solar and wind assets of 2,545 MW operational capacity. It is the largest listed renewable company in India and aims to scale up its infrastructure to produce 18GW by 2025 and 25GW by 2030.

A city gas distribution company mainly serving both industrial and residential customers in Gujarat.[44]

The Adani Group launched in 2014, with the support of a part of the Australian Government and Queensland, a mining and rail project (Carmichael coal mine) in Carmichael in Queensland's Galilee Basin for €21.5 billion[54] (over the life of the project, i.e. 60 years[54]). This controversial mine,[55] if implemented, would be the largest coal mine in the world. Its annual capacity would be 60 Mt of coal corresponding to the emission of 127 Mt of CO₂, the equivalent of the total emissions of Belgium.

This project is planned to occupy an area of 35,000 hectares (86,000 acres) and would consume 297 million m³ of water taken from the aquifers of the region, which will have consequences for the environment and the local population. In view of the suggested environmental consequences of this project, most international banks refused to finance it,[56] taking into account risks of flooding and/or induced earthquakes that may occur when working at such scale. In 2018 several international banks declined approaches to finance the project, and the conclusions of the environmental report for the authorisation of the project are postponed until 2019, following promises of local job creation by the Adani group.[57]

The Australian Government has been taken to the Federal Court of Australia by the Australian Conservation Foundation twice, once in 2018 and once in March 2020 (still ongoing as of September 2020), relating to its contravention and alleged contravention of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 with respect to the impact of the mine on groundwater and the country's water resources.[10]

In 2014, the Adani group also launched a project to dig a channel through the Great Barrier Reef of Australia to facilitate the export of coal with dredging of 38 million m³ reef sand.[58] This controversial project with dubious financing has aroused international opposition.