United News of Bangladesh

A deal has been signed between ‘Lal Teer Seed Limited, Bangladesh, and ‘OLsAro Crop biotech, Sweden for wheat production in coastal region where salinity is a major challenge. As per the joint collaboration, Lal Teer and OlsAro will work for the adaptation of the saline-tolerant wheat in the coastal areas of Bangladesh, which contributes to increasing domestic wheat production. The signing ceremony was held on Wednesday at a hotel in the city. The Chairman of Lal Teer Seed Abdul Awal Mintoo presided over the ceremony while Dr Sofia Strom, Chief Executive Officer of OlsAro Crop Biotech, was present as the special guest. From OlsAro Crop Biotech, Elen Fexo, Professor Olf Olsson, and Professor Henrik Aronsson were also present at the event. The lines were tested by Lal Teer in the coastal area along with the salt-tolerant variety BARI Gom-25. The line OA-62 performed potentially well continuously for the last two years and out-yielded BARI Gom-25, said M Abdur Rashid, General Manager of Lal Teer Seed Limited. He said the OA-62 variety of wheat yield around 5.15 tonnes per hector in normal land while it yields around 3.52 tonnes in the saline-infested soil. OlsAro is a famous biotechnological company working for the development of wheat salt tolerant lines through chemical mutations with joint collaboration of the Gothenburg University of Sweden. According to Agriculture Extension Directorate, climate change poses a particular challenge to the agriculture sector due to long-term changes in temperature and precipitation, floods, sea level rise, drought, salinity, and magnitude of monsoon season. Bangladesh owns a huge coastal region in the southern part of the country covering about 2.85 million hectares, which are over 30 percent of the net cultivable area of the country. Out of these 2.85 million hectares, more than one million hectares are affected by different degrees of salinity in certain parts of the year. This coastal area is prone to flood, drought, and salinity intrusion. Only one rice crop is cultivated during the rainy season but without potential yield. If Bangladesh can utilise the coastal land for cultivating saline-tolerant wheat its dependency on importing wheat would reduce significantly, experts said.

For the first time, a 2-day conference of the Asia Pacific Regional Committee (APRC) of world capital market regulatory bodies the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), is going to be held in the country. The conference will be held on February 22-23 at the Hotel Sheraton Hotel in the capital Dhaka. This was circulated in a press release signed by Mohammad Rezaul Karim, Executive Director of capital market regulator Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) on Sunday. BSEC Chairman Professor Shibli Rubaiyat-ul-Islam told UNB that IOSCO's APRC conference will be held on February 22 and 23. If this conference is held well, the next conference of IOSCO will be held in Dhaka. The supervisory director meeting is scheduled to be held on February 22 from 9:30 am to 12:00 pm. And enforcement director meeting will be held from 1:30 PM to 4:00 PM, the press release said. The two meetings will be chaired by BSEC Chairman and IOSCO APRC Vice Chair Professor Shibli Rubaiyat-ul-Islam. The discussion will conclude with the APRC Plenary Meeting to be held on February 23. The meeting will be attended by senior officials of capital market regulatory agencies of other countries in the Asia Pacific region including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nepal and their representatives. Apart from that, the representatives of the IOSCO Secretariat, Spain will be present in that meeting.  

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company's gas processing firm said Friday it plans to sell 4% of its shares to local investors in the latest initial public offering to be made by a state-run energy company in the Middle East. The move follows a similar IPO by the Saudi oil giant Aramco in 2019 that raised some $30 billion, and comes months before the United Arab Emirates is set to host this year's U.N. climate talks. The UAE, which is home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, selected Sultan al-Jaber, the CEO of ADNOC, who also oversees renewable energey projects, to chair the COP28, angering climate change activists. ADNOC has access to 95% of the UAE's natural gas reserves, the world's seventh largest. It supplies gas to more than 60% of the local market and exports to more than 20 countries. The company had a net income of $4.2 billion in the first 10 months of 2022, up from $3.6 billion in all of 2021. It plans to list over 3 billion shares on the Abu Dhabi stock exchange for purchase by local investors starting Feb. 23. “Natural gas is central to the energy transition,” Khaled Al Zaabi, acting group CFO of ADNOC, said in a press release. “ADNOC Gas is well-positioned to responsibly harness our significant natural gas resources, while driving efficiencies, delivering value, and reliably supplying this key fuel to meet the world’s growing energy needs.” ADNOC Gas boasts a total gas processing capacity of over 10 billion standard cubic feet per day and a liquid processing capacity of 29 million tonnes per year. ADNOC announced the discovery of up to 2 trillion standard cubic feet of gas in an offshore area in February 2022. Oil and gas have powered the UAE's rapid transformation into a high-tech global business hub home to futuristic cities and one of the world's busiest airports. Analysts believe the Emirates is trying to maximize its profits as the world increasingly turns to renewables. The Emirates says it has invested more than $50 billion in renewable energy projects across 70 countries and plans to invest $50 billion more in the next decade. It has also vowed to become carbon neutral by 2050, though it's unclear how it would reach that target.

Credit Suisse on Thursday reported a pre-tax loss of more than 1.3 billion Swiss francs (about $1.4 billion) in the fourth quarter of last year, as its new managers vie to right the top-drawer Swiss bank that has faced a string of setbacks in recent years. The bank also announced the $175 million purchase of the investment banking business of U.S.-based M. Klein & Co. and plans to roll those operations into the revived CS First Boston investment bank. The Zurich-based company, Switzerland’s No. 2 bank after UBS, said net revenue sank 20% compared with a year ago, coming in at 3 billion francs for the fourth quarter. The pre-tax loss was nearly 1.32 billion francs, compared with 1.67 billion in the same period a year earlier. Credit Suisse saw its investment bank business shrink and its Swiss bank and wealth management operations increase as a share of revenue. The company says it expects losses in both the investment bank and wealth management units for the first quarter of this year, partly due to a drop in assets under management and lower deposits since announcing a broad restructuring in October. The bank’s performance last year overall “was mainly driven by significantly lower” investment banking revenue, pointing to an “industry-wide slowdown in capital markets” with major indices all falling in 2022, it said in a statement. In October, Credit Suisse unveiled a “radical strategy” to revamp itself through measures including cost cuts, staff reductions, steps to lower risk and a cash infusion through a share purchase from the Saudi National Bank. Credit Suisse has run into multiple troubles in recent years, including bad bets on hedge funds and a spying scandal involving UBS. A Swiss court fined the bank more than $2 million in September for failing to prevent money laundering linked to a Bulgarian criminal gang more than 15 years ago. For the year, revenue plunged 34% to 14.92 billion francs, and the pre-tax loss came in at 3.26 billion francs, compared with a pre-tax loss of 600 million francs in 2021.  

A high level team of the Indian Adani Group is likely to come to Bangladesh within this month to discuss the coal price and power tariff issue, said a highly placed source at the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB). “We’ve been communicated by the Adani Group that a team of the company is coming to Bangladesh within February”, he told UNB on condition of anonymity. According to official sources, the move from the Indian conglomerate came in response to BPDB’s letter sent recently to the Adani Group following a request received in relation to opening LCs (in India) to import the coal that will be used as fuel for the 1,600 MW plant in Jharkhand. Since practically all the power generated by the plant located in the Godda district of Jharkhand state will be exported to Bangladesh, Adani Power requires a demand note from BPDB that it can present to Indian authorities before opening LCs against the coal import. Read: No uncertainty over adding Adani’s electricity to national grid in March: Nasrul Adani Power recently sent a request for BPDB to issue the demand note, where the coal price is quoted at $400 per ton -- far above what BPDB officials believe it should be given the present state of the international market. “In our view, the coal price they have quoted ($400/MT) is excessive - it should be less than $250/MT, which is what we are paying for the imported coal at our other thermal power plants," the BPDB official said. The same sources also said Bangladesh’s stance on the issue was communicated to Adani Power officials during the visit of a delegation led by State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid to the site of the power plant in the first week of January. Meanwhile, the State Minister on Sunday said that electricity from India Adani Group's Jharkhand power plant will be added to the national grid in March as per the agreement. "There is no uncertainty over supply of electricity from Adani Power to the national grid,” he told reporters at his office on Sunday. The junior minister's remarks came against the backdrop of a UNB report that state-owned BPDB sought a revision into the power purchase agreement (PPA) signed with Adani Group. He said the tariff of Adani's power will be competitive compared with other coal-fired plants like Payra power plant. "The tariff of Adani power will not be more than the tariff of power from the Payra plant," he said. He also said about 750 MW will be added to the national grid in March and another 750 MW from April this year. Read: Indian tycoon Adani hit by more losses, calls for probe A number of BPDB officials told UNB the Adani’s power tariff might be between Tk 20-22 per kilowatt hour (each unit) because of the absence of a provision for discounts on the purchase of coal in the PPA signed with Adani Power, that allowed the Indian firm to quote such a steep bill for the coal. The absence of such a provision is all the more notable since it was made mandatory in the PPAs for thermal power plants signed with other independent power producers, domestic or foreign. In these PPAs, the price of coal to be purchased as primary fuel was kept as “pass-through”. The PPA with Adani Power was signed in November 2017, in Dhaka. Then-Power Division Joint Secretary Faizul Amin, BPDB secretary at the time Mina Masuduzzaman and Adani’s Business Development President Kandarp Patel signed two documents - the PPA and an Implementing Agreement - on behalf of their respective sides. Officials said that they have been working on a number of alternatives to offer Adani so that its coal price could be reduced to ultimately lower the power tariff. " If the Adani’s power tariff is not competitive, it would be difficult for BPDB to keep it on the merit list to take its electricity for the national grid”, said another top BPDB official.  

The outlook for the global economy is growing slightly brighter as China eases its zero-COVID policies and the world shows surprising resilience in the face of high inflation, elevated interest rates and Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine. That's the view of the International Monetary Fund, which now expects the world economy to grow 2.9% this year. That forecast is better than the 2.7% expansion for 2023 that the IMF predicted in October, though down from the estimated 3.4% growth in 2022. The IMF, a 190-country lending organization, foresees inflation easing this year, a result of aggressive interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve and other major central banks. Those rate hikes are expected to slow the consumer demand that has driven prices higher. Globally, the IMF expects consumer inflation to decelerate from 8.8% last year to 6.6% in 2023 and 4.3% in 2024. A big factor in the upgrade to global growth was China’s decision late last year to lift anti-virus controls that had kept millions of people at home. The IMF said China’s “recent reopening has paved the way for a faster-than-expected recovery.’’ Read more: UN forecasts fall in global economic growth to 1.9% in 2023 The IMF now expects China's economy — the world’s second-biggest, after the United States — to grow 5.2% this year, up from its October forecast of 4.4%. Beijing's economy eked out growth of just 3% in 2022 — the first year in more than 40, the IMF noted, that China has expanded more slowly than the world as a whole. But the end of virus restrictions is expected to revive economic activity in 2023. The IMF's 2023 growth outlook improved for the United States (forecast to grow 1.4%) as well as for the 19 countries that share the euro currency (0.7%). Europe, though suffering from energy shortages and higher prices resulting from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, proved “more resilient than expected,’’ the IMF said. The European economy benefited from a warmer-than-expected winter, which held down demand for natural gas, Russia's economy, hit by sanctions after its invasion of Ukraine, has proved sturdier than expected, too: The IMF's forecast foresees Russia registering 0.3% growth this year. That would mark an improvement from a contraction of 2.2% in 2022. And it's well above the 2.3% contraction for 2023 that the IMF had forecast for Russia in October. The United Kingdom is a striking exception to the IMF's brighter outlook for 2023. It has forecast that the British economy will shrink 0.6% in 2023; in October, the IMF had expected growth of 0.3%. Higher interest rates and tighter government budgets are squeezing the British economy. Read More: Global economic growth will slow down in 2023, but will pick up in 2024: IMF chief “These figures confirm we are not immune to the pressures hitting nearly all advanced economies,’’ Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt said in response to the IMF forecast. “Short-term challenges should not obscure our long-term prospects — the U.K. outperformed many forecasts last year, and if we stick to our plan to halve inflation, the U.K. is still predicted to grow faster than Germany and Japan over the coming years.” The IMF noted that the world economy still faces serous risks. They include the possibility that Russia's war against Ukraine war will escalate, that China will suffer a sharp increase in COVID cases and that high interest rates will cause a financial crisis in debt-laden countries. The global outlook has been shrouded in uncertainty since the coronavirus pandemic struck in early 2020. Forecasters have been repeatedly confounded by events: A severe if brief recession in early 2020; an expectedly strong recovery triggered by vast government stimulus aid; then a surge in inflation, worsened when Russia's invasion of Ukraine nearly a year ago disrupted world trade in energy and food. Three weeks ago, the IMF’s sister agency, the World Bank, issued a more downbeat outlook for the global economy. The World Bank slashed its forecast for international growth this year by nearly half — to 1.7% — and warned that the global economy would come “perilously close’’ to recession. Read More: IMF expected to approve Bangladesh’s $4.5 billion loan package on Monday

Samsung Electronics said Tuesday its profit for the last quarter plummeted nearly 70% as a weak global economy depressed demands for its consumer electronics products and computer memory chips. The company’s operating profit of 4.3 trillion won ($3.5 billion) for the three months through December was a 69% decline from the same period a year earlier, representing its lowest quarterly profit since the third quarter of 2014. Revenue fell 8% to 70.46 trillion won ($57.2 billion). The South Korean tech giant had thrived through the first two years of the pandemic thanks to its dual strengths in parts and finished products, benefiting from robust demands for PCs, TVs and chips powering computer servers as the virus forced millions to work at home. Read more: Samsung launches month-long smartphone campaign for September But it has been harder for the company to weather the economic shock unleashed by Russia’s war on Ukraine, which disrupted industrial supply chains and left major economies grappling with higher inflation and slower growth. “The business environment deteriorated significantly in the fourth quarter due to weak demand amid a global economic slowdown,” Samsung said in a statement. The company’s profit from its bread-and-butter semiconductor business came to 270 billion won ($219 million) for the last quarter, down significantly from the 8.83 trillion won ($7.1 billion) it got a year earlier. Samsung said chip prices fell sharply amid weakened demand as clients adjusted their inventories in face of “deepening uncertainties” in the global economy, a problem the company says will likely extend into the first quarter of 2023. Read more: Samsung tops 'World's Best Employers 2022' Samsung also expects the demand for its smartphones and TVs to further decline in the first quarter amid the global economic downturn.

Dutch consumer electronics and medical equipment maker Philips said Monday it is cutting 6,000 jobs worldwide over the next two years as it revealed a net loss of 1.6 billion euros ($1.7 billion) in 2022, down from a net profit of 3.3 billion euros last year. The job losses come on top of a reduction of 4,000 staff the company announced in October. The company, which has its headquarters in Amsterdam, is reeling from a worldwide recall of sleep apnea machines and economic headwinds including COVID-related issues in China and the war in Ukraine. Read more: Google axes 12000 jobs, layoffs spread across tech sector CEO Roy Jakobs said 2022 was “a very difficult year for Philips and our stakeholders, and we are taking firm actions to improve our execution and step up performance with urgency.” He said the job cuts will significantly reduce costs and make Philips a “leaner and more focused organization.” Read more: Job cuts in tech sector spread, Microsoft lays off 10000

Europe is taking another big step toward cutting its energy ties with Russia, banning imports of diesel fuel and other products made from crude oil in Russian refineries. The European Union ban takes effect Feb. 5 following its embargo on coal and most oil from Russia. The 27-nation bloc is trying to sever its last uses of Russian energy and stop feeding the Kremlin's war chest as the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine nears. The newest ban has risks: Diesel prices have already jumped since the war started on Feb. 24, and they could rise again for the fuel that is key to the global economy. “We’re leaving money in the road to provide our services,” said Hans-Dieter Sedelmeier of the family-run German bus and travel company Rast Reisen. Most things people buy or eat is transported at some point by trucks, which mostly run on diesel. It also powers farm equipment, city buses and industrial equipment. The higher cost of diesel is built into the price of almost everything, helping push up inflation that has made life harder for people worldwide. Here are key facts about the upcoming European embargo: WILL THE EMBARGO PUSH UP DIESEL PRICES? That depends. Diesel, like crude oil, is sold globally, and Europe could look for new sources, such as the U.S., India or countries in the Middle East. If that goes smoothly, the impact on prices might be temporary and modest. Europe has already cut Russian diesel imports almost in half, from 50% of total imports before the war to 27%. U.S. suppliers have stepped up supplies to record levels, from 34,000 barrels a day at the start of 2022 to 237,000 barrels per day so far in January, according to S&P Global. Read more: What's the effect of Russian oil price cap, ban? The EU’s top energy official, Kadri Simson, says markets have had time to adjust after the ban was announced in June. Europeans also appear to have stocked up on Russian diesel before the deadline, with imports rising last month. There is a complicating factor: The Group of Seven major democracies are talking about imposing a price cap on Russian diesel heading to other countries, just as they did on Russian crude. As with oil, the idea is to keep Russian diesel flowing to world markets but reduce Moscow’s revenue. If the cap works as advertised, global diesel flows should reshuffle, with Europe finding new suppliers and Russian diesel finding new customers, without a major loss of supply. But it's hard to say how the cap will work without knowing where the price will be set and whether Russia will retaliate by withholding shipments. “When Russian exports are constrained, for whatever reason, that would of course cause some trouble in this whole reshuffle process," said Hedi Grati, head of fuels and refining research for Europe at S&P Global Commodity Insights. “Europe would be competing with other big importers, and that would cause upward pressure on pricing.” If the cap doesn't block large amounts of Russian diesel, there might be “a short-lived price spike” as the market adjusts. For one, tankers would have a longer journey to Europe from the U.S., Middle East or India than from Russia's Baltic Sea ports, stressing shipping capacity. But massive new refining capacity is launching in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia later this year and in Oman in 2024. That “could further alleviate any pressure points from this divorce from Russia,” Grati said. WHAT COULD A DIESEL PRICE CAP ACCOMPLISH? The hope is to reproduce the effect of the oil price cap, which barred Western companies that largely control shipping services from handling Russian crude priced above $60 a barrel. Read more: Russia rejects $60-a-barrel cap on its oil, warns of cutoffs Russia says it won't sell oil to countries observing the price ceiling, but the cap and falling demand from a slowing global economy has meant customers in China, India and elsewhere can buy Russian oil at steep discounts, cutting into the Kremlin's revenue. Boosted by more expensive crude, diesel prices rose to over $1,000 a ton last week from $800 a ton in early December. Diesel costs more than $40 per barrel above the crude used to make it. One reason for the price hike was a late December storm in the U.S. that disrupted refineries, said Barbara Lambrecht, an analyst at Commerzbank. WHAT HAPPENS IF DIESEL GETS MORE EXPENSIVE? Fuel prices have been a major factor behind painful inflation in Europe that has robbed consumers of purchasing power and slowed the economy. Diesel prices at the pump have swung from 1.66 euros per liter ($6.43 a gallon) to 2.14 euros per liter ($8.29 a gallon) in the course of a year. “That is a gigantic increase,” said Christopher Schuldes, the third generation of his family to run German trucking company Schuldes Spedition. The company has 27 diesel trucks and 50 employees in the small town of Alsbach-Haehnlein between Frankfurt and Heidelberg in southwest Germany. It already has cut fuel costs by equipping trucks with efficient engines, ensuring trucks leave fully loaded and training employees in fuel-efficient driving. “We did all that a long time ago, long before Russia invaded Ukraine," Schuldes said. “There's no more room for optimization.” To ease the extra diesel costs, the company tried negotiating higher prices with customers who have long-term contracts. Some agreed, some didn’t. Even if a contract allows prices to rise with diesel costs, there’s a two-month lag. Regarding the embargo, “I am of two minds about it,” Schuldes said. “I have to see that the company is in good shape, and that our purchasing is as economical as possible. On the other hand — on the personal level — I say Russia must not be supported.” Meanwhile, Rast Reisen, the bus and travel company near Freiburg im Breisgau in southwestern Germany, has seen diesel fuel rise from 12%-15% of costs to 20%-25%. Because 15 of its 25 buses are part of the regional public transport network, the company can't automatically raise fares, and government increases so far are “a droplet on a hot stone,” said Sedelmeier, managing director for public transport. Read more: Russian oil cap begins, trying to pressure Putin on Ukraine Rast Reisen had to add a 10- to 15-euro diesel surcharge to trips to popular destinations like northern Germany's island of Sylt or Croatia's coast because prices spiked after catalogues were printed. Next year, prices for trips will simply be higher. WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Energy markets are looking to China and wondering when the world's second-largest economy will recover after the end of drastic COVID-19 restrictions. With low demand for fuel at home, the Chinese government let refineries ramp up their exports. But if travel picks up in China, that diesel may disappear from the world market, raising prices as competition for fuel increases.

India’s Adani Group, run by Asia’s richest man, has hit back at a report from U.S.-based short-seller Hindenburg Research, calling it “malicious”, “baseless” and full of “selective misinformation.” Shares in the conglomerate have suffered massive losses since Hindenburg issued its report alleging fraud and other malfeasance. On Monday, shares in some Adani companies recovered some lost ground. The flagship company, Adani Enterprises, gained 3.2% and Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd. added 3.3%. But shares in other Adani listed companies fell between 5% to 20%. Adani’s 400-page rebuttal issued late Sunday accused Hindenburg of attacking India and its institutions and of breaking securities and foreign exchange laws. Adani has also accused Hindenburg, which said it was betting against the group’s companies, of trying to derail a share sale originally expected to bring in about $2.5 billion. Read more:  “This is not merely an unwarranted attack on any specific company but a calculated attack on India, the independence, integrity and quality of Indian institutions, and the growth story and ambition of India,” Adani's statement said. In response, the Hindenburg firm denied the accusations and said Adani's response largely confirmed its findings and failed to address key questions. It said the group was trying to conflate its rise with the success of India itself. “We believe India is a vibrant democracy and emerging superpower with an exciting future. We also believe India's future is being held back by the Adani Group," Hindenburg said in a statement. “We also believe that fraud is fraud, even when it's perpetrated by one of the wealthiest individuals in the world," it said. Read more: Adani’s 750 MW power to come to national grid in March: Nasrul Hamid Gautam Adani and his family have built a vast fortune mining coal to fuel energy-hungry India’s fast-growing economy. Businesses in the conglomerate span industries including infrastructure, ports, data transmission, media, renewable energy, defense manufacturing and agriculture. Adani's own net worth has skyrocketed nearly 2,000% in recent years. With a net worth of nearly $125 billion late last year, Adani surpassed Amazon boss Jeff Bezos to briefly become the world's second-richest man, according to Bloomberg's Billionaire Index. After last week's losses, Bloomberg's index ranked him seventh richest in the world with a fortune worth $92.7 billion. The report from Hindenburg said it judged the seven key Adani listed companies to have an “85% downside, purely on a fundamental basis owing to sky-high valuations.” Hindenburg said its report, “Adani Group: How the World’s 3rd Richest Man is Pulling the Largest Con in Corporate History,” followed a two-year investigation. It listed 88 questions it invited the company to answer. Most of the allegations involved concerns about the group’s debt levels, activities of its top executives, use of offshore shell companies and past investigations into fraud. Investors began dumping Adani-linked shares on Wednesday, wiping out some $48 billion in market value. Over the weekend, Adani said it would carry on with its share sale in Adani Enterprises as scheduled, despite the value of its shares falling well below the price range of the offering. On Monday, Adani Enterprises was trading at 2,850 rupees ($35), up 3.2% but well below the band of 3,112 to 3,276 rupees initially set for the offering which closes Tuesday. In its response to Hindenburg, the Adani Group said none of the 88 questions in its report was “based on independent or journalistic fact finding.” It rejected numerous questions as baseless, misleading or biased. In response to other questions, the group attached documents and tables of data and said it had followed local laws. Read more: Adani Group mulls suing US short-seller for fraud claims Adani also dismissed concerns over its debt-fueled growth, saying the “leverage ratios of Adani portfolio companies continue to be healthy and are in line with the industry benchmarks of the respective sectors.” In an interview with CNBC TV-18 on Monday, Adani's chief financial officer Jugeshinder Singh said the group's gross debt was $30 billion, out of which $9 billion was from Indian banks. Hindenburg said only 30 pages in Adani's response focused on issues it raised and the rest consisted of court records, general information, company financials and “irrelevant corporate initiatives.” Adani failed to specifically answer 62 of the 88 questions it had posed, it said. Late Thursday, Jatin Jalundhwala, head of the Adani group’s legal department, said the group was considering legal action against Hindenburg. Hindenburg said it stood by its report and would welcome legal action by the Adani group.