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India’s Adani Group is in talks to expand into e-commerce and payments as the conglomerate builds a digital business to compete with the likes of Google and Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries in the world’s most populous country, according to four people familiar with the matter.
The plans come as the group’s politically well-connected founder Gautam Adani seeks to overcome damaging scandals and diversify his empire into fast-growing consumer-oriented markets. Adani has become Asia’s second richest man by amassing a vast infrastructure and logistics network of ports, airports and power plants.
The company is now considering applying for a license to operate India’s ubiquitous public digital payments network, Unified Payments Interface, and is in talks with banks to finalize previously announced plans for a co-branded Adani credit card, the people said.
Separately, it is an online shopping offering through India’s fast-growing, government-backed public e-commerce platform Open Network for Digital Commerce, they added. ONDC and UPI form part of India’s digital public infrastructure “stack,” which attracts hundreds of millions of users a month and has become popular with groups competing to build consumer technology deals.
“This country is run by only three business conglomerates – Tatas, Ambanis and Adanis,” said Jayanth Kolla, a Bengaluru-based technology analyst. “Adani is one of three groups that does not have significant consumer-facing businesses.”
Once complete, the services will be available through Adani’s Adani One consumer app, which launched in late 2022 and offers travel services such as flight and hotel bookings.
Walmart-backed Google and PhonePe already run widely used UPI-based payment apps, while domestic groups like Paytm and Tata offer grocery and fashion shopping through ONDC. “Interoperable” networks mean that companies do not need to invest in their own payment or e-commerce platforms because they can transact through other providers.
Adani’s consumer push comes after a scandal last year in which US short seller Hindenburg Research accused it of market manipulation and fraud. The allegations sparked a $150 billion loss in Adani’s listed shares and attacks from opposition leaders over the founder’s long-standing ties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The company has remained in the limelight during the ongoing elections in India. The opposition has vowed to investigate Adani if ​​elected following a Financial Times report last week that it was passing off low-quality coal for a more expensive, cleaner fuel when it sold the state-owned company. Modi also accused his rivals of taking “black money” from Adani.
The group denies wrongdoing and India’s securities regulator has not yet released the outcome of its investigation into Hindenburg’s allegations. Meanwhile, Adani’s businesses have recovered, with shares in its flagship Adani Enterprises recovering almost all of last year’s losses.
On Tuesday, the board of flagship conglomerate Adani Enterprises approved plans to raise up to Rs 166 billion ($2 billion) through a share sale after power transmission company Adani Energy Solutions agreed earlier this week to issue 1.5 billions of USD.
The fundraising plans come more than a year after Adani Enterprises secured a $2.5 billion share placement as Hindenburg’s allegations sparked a collapse in share prices across the group’s listed companies.
Adani’s consumer push comes as it seeks to expand and integrate different parts of its business empire, such as NDTV, a broadcaster acquired in 2022, and its Adani Wilmar joint venture selling staples such as rice and wheat. He also plans to establish a think tank focused on climate change, energy and politics.
People familiar with the matter said the company’s e-commerce and payments offering would initially target existing users of its businesses, which they said amounted to hundreds of millions of people when they included gas and electricity customers and passengers at its airports.
For example, they could earn loyalty points through bill payments or duty-free purchases and use them to shop online, the people said. Targeting existing users in this way would give Adani “a platform to move into much larger areas”, one of the people said. Another added that Adani plans to add NDTV content to its app this year.
Analysts are skeptical about Adani’s prospects. Tata Neu’s so-called super app, launched in 2022, has gained limited traction, while Reliance has a multi-year lead in consumer businesses such as telecom, retail and entertainment.
“You pay your bills once, you travel once or twice, that’s it,” said Satish Meena, an independent analyst. “These points are not an incentive for a customer to switch to online shopping with Adani.”
Adani declined to comment.