Adani posts weird video to fend off Carmichael criticism

Gautam Adani

 

The following article by Michael Slezak and Nick Evershed (The Guardian 21 October 2017) is about Gautam Adani and his social media blitz to counter the massive opposition he is facing in Australia, over his controversial Carmichael coal mine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin.

The Adani Group has promoted a bizarre video advertisement on Facebook, in which the Indian company responds to revelations its Australian coal operations face growing financial risks.

The video, targeting people in Melbourne, flashes up text on the screen, backed by fast and upbeat percussive music. It displays “allegations”, which are labelled as “lies”, followed by attempts to set the record straight. It also misspells “Abbot point”, its coal terminal.

The video was uploaded along with a long post that contains strange defenses of its operation, including the false claim that the entire allegations about the company are based on “just one screenshot of random text”.

The Facebook post had more than 580,000 views on the video statistics at the time of writing.

Tim Buckley, a financial analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, made many of the allegations Adani was attempting to refute. Aired in an episode of ABC’s Four Corners program, the institute claimed Adani’s operations in Australia were unprofitable and required the Carmichael mine to bail them out.

Buckley described the video as a “desperate attempt to try and counter some of the facts with loud music and flashing lights” and a sign that the campaign against Adani in Australia is having an impact.

“In one respect it shows that Adani is taking it seriously,” Buckley said. “The whole campaign in Australia is doing enormous damage to the social license to operate of Adani.”

Facebook ads are “sponsored” posts that an advertiser has paid to push into the news feed of a specifically targeted pool of people. Unless the ad appears in your feed, there is no easy way to determine that a post has been sponsored. This makes it difficult to keep track of political advertising on the social network.

Facebook advertising is considered effective because it allows messaging to be fed to a very specific audience based on demographics and interests. In this case, the Adani ad was aimed at targeting “people ages 18 and older who live or were recently near Melbourne, Victoria”.

The video was posted on 17 October, about two weeks after Four Corners aired a report about the escalating financial risks of Adani’s operations in Australia, including the Abbot Point coal terminal, and the proposed Carmichael coal mine.

Much of the Four Corners story was based on a detailed report by the Institute for Energy Economic and Financial Analysis (Ieefa), which said the push to develop the Carmichael mine appeared to be a desperate attempt by Adani to save its unprofitable and debt-ridden Abbot Point coal terminal.

It also revisited the allegations of financial and environmental crimes committed by the Adani Group and its senior executives, including those allegations revealed by the Guardian.

Adani says the post was a response to a GetUp video, which itself was a summary of the Ieefa and Four Corners reports.

The company’s post said: “The entire baseless accusation on Adani is based on just one screenshot of random text with no mention of its origins or reference.”

However, the Ieefa report is publicly available, and contains a long list of references, also available to anyone. The allegations of tax avoidance are based on many documents, including a leaked investigation from the Indian directorate of revenue intelligence, which the Guardian has published.

One key part of the Ieefa and Four Corners report was the fact that the existing Abbot Point coal terminal had been operating at only 50% capacity, adding to evidence the port’s viability was tied to the successful development of the Carmichael coal mine, which will fill the rest of its throughput.

The Facebook post says: “The Abbot Point Coal Terminal has consistently delivered 100% of supply-driven throughout and is not a low utilisation of Asset.” However, government data from the North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation – collated in the Ieefa report – shows the port has averaged just over 50 percent utilisation since the beginning of 2015.

The advertisement attacks the idea that Abbot Point is unprofitable by making an unusual claim: “The capital structure of Abbot point is rated by rating agencies and has investment grade rating from S&P (BBB-),” it says. However, BBB- is the lowest investment grade rating, below which assets become known as “junk bonds”.

Buckley and one of the authors of the Ieefa report said that particular company (Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd) with the poor rating was the only publicly listed company in the Adani group, and the only one in the group that had a credit rating at all. “That listed company is totally removed from the operations in Australia,” Buckley said, adding that if any other group company had a credit rating, it would be even lower.

At the end of Adani’s post, it makes a passing reference to GetUp, suggesting the post was also motivated by one of their videos. “The analysis of the nos. from the balance sheet by Getup is not correct. In fact, the whole video is a bundle of lies,” the post says.

A spokesman for Adani told the Guardian the video was a response to a GetUp video, which included “a non-sourced frame of allegations”.

The Adani spokesman insisted that the Abbot Point terminal operated at full capacity. “AAPT maintains its position that 100 per cent of supply side throughput has been delivered since the asset was acquired by Adani,” he said. “Contracted capacity, both for counter parties and quantities, is commercial information that we are restricted from sharing due to confidentiality conditions associated with our customers.”

The Adani video

Truth About Adani's Abbot Point Coal Terminal

Trying to stall pro-job developmental projects to further their own hidden anti-development agenda is a sad but true picture of these so called activists and their funding organisations. These ‘anti-development’ ‘anti-job’ campaigns affect job creation and the economic growth story of a nation. Some of them are spreading #Whitelies and misleading people in Australia and India to defame Adani's image besides sabotaging the progressive growth of Regional Queensland in particular and Australia in general, to be brought by Carmichael Coal mine. The entire baseless accusation on Adani is based on just one screenshot of random text with no mention of its origins or reference. Time to see facts and hear the truth. These allegations about abbot Point Coal Terminal viability and Adani Group finances are absolutely baseless and far from the facts.-The Abbot Point Coal Terminal has consistently delivered 100% of supply-driven throughout and is not a low utilisation of Asset.- The renewal of the TOP contracts are normal features of the infrastructure capacity contracts in Australia. There is currently queue at Abbot Point for port capacity which means that the demand for the capacity is greater than the capacity Abbot Point Coal terminal can actually provide to the access seekers. Then how does it have risky dependence on Carmichael mine?Adani Mining is fully funded by shareholder/associate company funds and there is no third party or bank debt which has funded the development of the mine till now. The interpretation of the financial statement on which the question is based is wrong. Abbot is a profit making company. The capital structure of Abbot point is rated by rating agencies and has investment grade rating from S&P (BBB-). The analysis of the nos. from the balance sheet by Getup is not correct. In fact, the whole video is a bundle of lies.Shameful attempt to twist facts and concoct lies to spin a false story.

Posted by Adani Group on Monday, October 16, 2017

Why is Adani continuing with the Carmichael coal mine?
Video from GetUp!

ADANI: The truth about Carmichael

The Adani family has made a HUGE mistake:

Posted by GetUp! on Wednesday, October 11, 2017

 

 

1 Comment on "Adani posts weird video to fend off Carmichael criticism"

  1. Jeffrey Passlow | 25 October 2017 at 10:49 am | Reply

    Regardless of what happens in Australia, Adani will be left with unsullied hands. As with most Indian businessmen, he does business at arm’s length, having shell companies between him and the “action”. Yes, it will harm his reputation if things go bottom up in Australia but one can be assured that he will not go bust.
    It is pleasing to see that the efforts of #Stop Adani seem to be doing what is intended.

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