The Caisse de depot et placement invested $200 million last year in an Indian firm, despite warning signs that had arisen as early as 2021.
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The sum was injected in early 2022 into Azure Power Global, an Indian solar power producer. Since 2016, the Caisse has invested nearly $630 million in Azure, an investment that was worth barely $189 million yesterday.
However, in 2021, the company revealed that it had received complaints from whistleblowers about various alleged irregularities attributable to some of its leaders. The complaints were found to be unsubstantiated, but Azure still concluded that its “ethics policies for outside consultants” needed to be “strengthened,” reads an annual report published in July 2021.
Charge
Then, in October 2021, Azure Power’s CFO, Pawan Agrawal, was charged under India’s money laundering law for actions allegedly taken while working for India’s Yes Bank. .
The charges “do not relate to” Azure, the company assured in December 2021. Mr. Agrawal is still employed by Azure.
Handling
In May 2022, Azure received new reports from a whistleblower, which led to the discovery of “manipulation of data and information by certain employees”.
Internal investigations revealed that four of the company’s solar farms were affected by irregularities, the company said earlier this week. Azure is also looking into corruption allegations involving former executives.
“Given that it is the majority shareholder of Azure, the Caisse must take a leading role in the management of the crisis”, estimates Raphaël Duguay, professor of accounting at Yale University, in Connecticut.
La Caisse currently owns 53.4% of the shares of Azure, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
India in sight
The Caisse’s first investment in the company dates back to October 2016. A few months earlier, the Caisse had opened an office in India, seeing there “a market with great potential”, and had appointed Anita George to take care of the ‘South Asia.
Photo taken from the CDPQ website
anita george
She quietly left the institution in January 2022.
Photo taken from the CDPQ website
Macky Tall
The head of infrastructure at Caisse at the time of the decision to invest in Azure was Macky Tall, who resigned in December 2020.
Photo taken from the CDPQ website
As for the infrastructure manager for the Asia-Pacific region at the Caisse, it is Cyril Cabanes, who sits on the board of directors of Azure.
In 2019, the Caisse de depot et placement stated in a regulatory document that it “could take an active role in working with Azure management on operational, financial and strategic initiatives”.
Azure Power in brief
- Foundation : 2008
- Activity area : solar energy production
- Ability : 2.9 gigawatts
- Annual income : $82M