Adani Group invests $442 million in cash-strapped Sri Lanka

In a boost to the embattled Adani Group, Sri Lanka's Board of Investment on Wednesday approved the commissioning of two wind power plants by Adani Green Energy Limited for a total of $442 million. This will be the crisis-hit island nation's first major foreign investment since it declared bankruptcy last year.

The Board of Investment - the 'apex agency for foreign direct investment in Sri Lanka' - said the two would be commissioned in two years and added to the island nation's power grid by 2025.

Adani Green Energy is the renewable energy unit of the apple-to-airport group.

According to Reuters, Adani officials are in Colombo to evaluate future projects, including a $700 million port terminal at Sri Lanka's largest port - a project seen as a bid to address India's concerns over China's growing influence in the area.

The firm is building a 1.4-kilometre-long, 20-meter-deep jetty next to a Chinese-run terminal at the only deep-sea container port between Dubai and Singapore.

The news is encouraging for Gautam Adani's conglomerate, which this week saw the combined equity market value of its 10 companies slip below $100 billion, even as the billionaire tycoon hires legal and communications firms to reassure investors following a report alleging 'brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud' by short-seller Hindenburg Research.

Adani has fallen from No. 2 on Bloomberg's list of the world's richest men to No. 29 this morning. His net worth is less than $50 billion.

Gautam Adani has denied any wrongdoing, and the government has distanced itself from the group, particularly in light of allegations of overexposure by state financial bodies like the State Bank of India.

This month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Reserve Bank of India Chief Shaktikanta Das both stressed strong regulatory measures that govern the Indian banking sector.

Their reassurances, however, have been largely dismissed by a political opposition that has targeted prime minister Narendra Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party with allegations of 'favouring' the Adani Group.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has been struggling with its own financial crisis for some months, and this week raised electricity costs by a staggering 66% to get a $2.9 billion rescue package from the International Monetary Fund; power prices were raised by 75% last year.

Sri Lanka's financial crisis has severely impacted life for its beleaguered citizens, who made headlines last year after they took to the streets to protest the spiralling cost of living and had violent clashes with state security personnel.

It will hope Adani's plants can kickstart a recovery - at least for the power generation sector - amid hopes it will also generate 1,500 to 2,000 new jobs.