Business

Adani row rocks India’s parliament following share meltdown

Both houses of India’s parliament were adjourned on Friday amid chaotic scenes as some lawmakers demanded an inquiry following the meltdown of shares in billionaire Gautam Adani’s group companies, which some fear could spark wider financial turmoil.

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Shares in Adani companies recovered after sharp falls earlier in the day, but the seven listed firms have still lost about half their market value – or more than $100 billion combined – since US short-seller Hindenburg Research last week accused the group of stock manipulation and unsustainable debt.

Adani Group, one of India's top conglomerates, rejects the criticism and denies wrongdoing.

Credit ratings agency Moody's warned on Friday the share plunge could hit the group's ability to raise capital, although peer Fitch saw no immediate impact on its ratings.

“These adverse developments are likely to reduce the group’s ability to raise capital to fund committed capex or refinance maturing debt over the next 1-2 years,” Moody’s said.

Amid fears the turmoil could spill over into the broader financial system, some Indian politicians have called for a wider investigation into the matter, and sources have told Reuters the central bank has asked lenders for details of exposure to the group.

The speakers of both houses of parliament adjourned proceedings on Friday as some lawmakers disrupted business by shouting slogans such as: “We want a joint parliamentary committee (to investigate)” and “Stop looting the poor!”

On Thursday, S&P Dow Jones Indices said it would drop the conglomerate’s flagship Adani Enterprises from widely used sustainability indexes on February 7, which would blunt their appeal for environment-conscious investors.

“Contagion concerns are widening, but still limited to the banking sector,” said Charu Chanana, a market strategist with Saxo Markets in Singapore.

“One of the big risk factors to watch for now is if more indices remove Adani stocks … This can result in foreign outflows as funds sell Adani stocks, further aggravating confidence issues,” Chanana said.

Foreign investors, many already underweight on India as they consider its stock market overpriced, are reducing exposure.
Adani Enterprises shares were trading around flat, after earlier slumping 35 percent to hit their lowest since March 2021. The stock’s new low took its losses to nearly $33.6 billion since last week, for a decline of 70 percent.

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd was up 5 percent, while Adani Transmission Ltd and Adani Green Energy Ltd were both down 10 percent.

Adani Total Gas Ltd , a joint venture with France’s TotalEnergies SE, fell 5 percent. In a statement, TotalEnergies said it had limited exposure to stakes in Adani companies and had not re-evaluated them.

Biggest challenge

For Gautam Adani, a former school drop-out from Gujarat, the western home state of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, the crisis presents the biggest reputational and business challenge of his life.

The share meltdown is a dramatic turn of fortune for the 60-year-old, who in recent years forged partnerships with, and attracted investment from, foreign giants as he pursued global expansion in industries from ports to power.
In its report, Hindenburg said key listed Adani companies had “substantial debt” and shares in the seven listed firms had a downside of 85 percent due to what it called sky-high valuations. It also alleged stock manipulation.

The Adani group said the allegation of stock manipulation had “no basis” and stemmed from ignorance of Indian law. It added that over the past decade, group companies have “consistently de-levered.”

The listed Adani firms now have a combined market value of $108 billion, versus $218 billion before Hindenburg’s report.

The plunge has forced Adani to cede the crown of Asia’s richest person to Indian rival Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries Ltd, as he has slid to 17th in Forbes’ ranking of the world's wealthiest people. He had been third, after Elon Musk and Bernard Arnault.

The prices of US dollar bonds issued by group members edged higher on Friday after diving the previous day.

Adani Green’s bonds maturing in September 2024 gained about 7 cents to 69.69 cents, off Thursday's record low of 60.56 cents.

Indian magnate Adani says to keep investing in Israel after Haifa port takeover

Adani Group calls Hindenburg fraud claim a ‘calculated attack on India’

Business

Almarai signs multiple agreements to localize jobs through training and recruitment programs

Almarai signed a cooperation memorandum with the Food Industries Polytechnic, the
Transport General Authority, and the Saudi Logistics Academy to localize jobs in the
food and beverages sector through training and rehabilitation programs ending in
employment. This came within the first international conference on the labor market,
organized by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development on 13 – 14
December 2023 at the King Abdulaziz Convention Center in Riyadh.

‘These agreements are part of Almarai’s corporate program for the social responsibility
to achieve localization in the food industry sector, which is one of the top priorities of the
comprehensive strategic plans in Almarai, especially since the company is one of the
largest working environments in the kingdom, with more than 9,000 Saudi employees,
including more than 900 Saudi female employees.”Fahad Aldrees, Chief Human
Resources Officer of Almarai, said.

He added that the agreements signed to train and qualify young people are part of the
integrated initiatives and training and rehabilitation programs for national human
resources in Almarai. He pointed out that the company provided about half a million
employee training hours during 2022, raising its retention rate to 90% during 2022.

It is worth mentioning that Almarai is the world’s largest vertically integrated dairy
company, and the largest food and beverage producer and distributor in the Middle
East. Almarai was ranked among LinkedIn’s top 15 Saudi companies for professional
career development for 2022.

Business

SEBA Bank rebrands to AMINA Bank and continues to write its success story

a fully licensed Swiss crypto bank, announced today its new brand identity: AMINA Bank AG. The group operates
globally from its regulated hubs in Zug, Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong, offering its clients traditional and crypto banking services.
SEBA Bank made history in 2019 by becoming one of the first FINMA-regulated institutions to provide crypto banking services. This rebrand marks a new chapter for the company, which has proudly been in operation for more than four years. AMINA Bank is inspired by the same trailblazing ambition to lead the way for its clients and to write its own future as a Swiss-
regulated crypto bank offering services to its traditional and crypto savvy clients around the globe. The name ‘AMINA’ stems from the term ‘transAMINAtion’, meaning transference of one compound to another. AMINA is a brand driven by perpetual change, bringing together the various ‘compounds’ of traditional, digital, and crypto banking to unlock new potential and
growth for our clients. This vision of change represents the transformation of our clients’ financial future. Franz Bergmueller, CEO of AMINA, said: “We are delighted to introduce the world to our new brand identity. While we say goodbye to the SEBA name, we remain forever proud of the achievements made by the group under the former brand. “Our brand signifies a new era in the company’s growth and strategy; we are a key player in crypto banking and are here to define the future of finance. With our client-focused approach, our years of traversing traditional and crypto finance, we offer a platform for investors to build
wealth safely and under the highest regulatory standards.” “We are grateful to be encouraged by our supportive and committed investors who have been very helpful, supporting the growth of the company. We thank our employees in all the regions
for their dedication and client focus. As we look forward to 2024, our ambition is to accelerate the growth of our strategic hubs in Switzerland, Hong Kong, and Abu Dhabi, and to continue our global expansion, building on all the successes we have laid down over the past years.” Current clients of AMINA Bank (formerly SEBA Bank) will be unaffected by the rebrand other than encountering the new name; all operations will be business as usual across the board. The branch office based in Abu Dhabi and the subsidiaries in Hong Kong and Singapore will subsequently apply for a name change to align with the head office in Zug.

Business

Uptime Appoints Mustapha Louni Chief Business Officer

Uptime Institute is pleased to announce the appointment of Mustapha Louni to the position of Chief Business Officer, a role specifically created to drive strategic leadership and client success. In this new role, Mr. Louni will assume responsibility for the global Uptime sales and marketing organizations and drive overall business value for all Uptime clients. He will retain his existing responsibilities overseeing operations in the Middle East, India, Africa, and the Asia Pacific regions. In this elevated capacity, Mr. Louni is poised to play a pivotal role in driving Uptime’s next phase of global expansion through strategic initiatives to enhance market awareness of the dramatically expanding global service lines and delivery capabilities of Uptime that uniquely support the global data center industry in its pursuit of ever higher performance through elevated availability, resiliency, sustainability, and cyber-security of digital infrastructure. Louni’s appointment renews and expands Uptime

Institute 39;s 30-year commitment to advancing excellence in the data center sector on a global scale. “Today we are experiencing the next phase of the one-time, planetary transformation from analog to digital. This unprecedented, once-in-a-generation growth in data center demand is primarily driven by continuing cloud adoption, the new promise of AI, and the demonstrable fact
that hybrid digital infrastructure is here to stay for the foreseeable future,” said Martin McCarthy, CEO, Uptime Institute. “These complex and nuanced market demands require a visionary talent like Mustapha Louni. He is someone who cannot only deftly manage specific aspects of the business but also remain ahead of accelerating changes and trends. He continues to earn client
trust and respect by timely delivery on demanding commitments while he also inspires and energizes colleagues and clients alike. I am delighted to announce Mr. Louni’s new position and know that he will continue to expand the impact that he has already brought to Uptime since his arrival.” In 2014, Mr. Louni joined the Uptime organization in the United Arab Emirates, leveraging his extensive experience from roles at Panduit and Schneider Electric in Paris and Dubai. As the company’s first commercial resource in the Middle East and Africa region, Mr. Louni played a pivotal role in expanding Uptime’s presence. Within a year, he successfully established what became and remains Uptime’s fastest growing regional office. Under his leadership, Uptime has
extended his impressive trajectory of growth in MEA to the Asia-Pacific regions, augmenting the Uptime workforce with dedicated team members spanning more than a dozen countries across these regions. A new Uptime office has been inaugurated in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) this year, further fortifying the company’s ability to meet its commitment to sustained
growth and excellence and serve clients in critical, accelerating markets for digital infrastructure.

Uptime Institute began development of its proprietary and now globally recognized Tier Standards and its Tier Certifications 30 years ago to ensure that the mission critical computing needs of all organizations could be met with confidence and understood by executive management. Since that time, Uptime Tier Certification as well as other Uptime offerings including assessments and awards in digital infrastructure for ensuring business performance in areas of management and operations, risk and resilience, sustainability, and more recently cyber- security have gained global adoption. Uptime’s expanding success is based on delivering a
unique business service that is based upon unparalleled engineering excellence and technical mastery, while remaining vendor independent and technology agnostic.