The Adani Group on Monday cited recent market developments that prompted the group to put on hold the major equipment procurement and site construction activities at its ₹34,000-crore green polyvinyl chloride (PVC) project at Mundra, Gujarat.

In a statement, the Adani Group spokesperson said, “Due to recent market developments, the management has decided to continue with the engineering design and other activities, including financial closure, in an accelerated mode. Pending the above it has been decided to keep the major equipment procurement and site construction activities on hold.”

The spokesperson also stated that the financial closure of the Green PVC project of Mundra Petrochemicals Limited (MPL) is pending with the financial institutions and is in their active consideration. MPL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the flagship Adani Enterprises Ltd., incorporated in 2021 to set up a greenfield coal-to-PVC plant at Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) land in Kutch, Gujarat.

It was planned to have a PVC production capacity of 2,000 kilotonnes per year.

The commodities-to-infrastructure behemoth has been under the weather since a US-based short-seller investor accused the group of stock and financial manipulations in a report it released in January.

Since then, the group has lost over $100 billion in market value across its ten listed group companies, putting Adani Group in the eye of suspicion of investors and financial institutions.

“We are hopeful to obtain financial closure for the project in the next six months, after which full-fledged procurement and construction activities at the site will commence.

“We are committed to completing the project in an expeditious manner so as to meet the original timelines,” the Adani spokesperson said in the statement issued on Monday.

Flagship AEL shares ended at Rs 1805.95, nearly 4 per cent lower than their previous close on the NSE.

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