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Today’s agenda: Nvidia revenue; John Lewis chief slams UK Budget; Trump-Lebanon link; Olaf Scholz’s ‘Biden moment’; and 2024’s best novels
Good morning. Indian tycoon Gautam Adani has been indicted in the US for an alleged years-long bribery scheme.
What are the allegations? US prosecutors said more than $250mn in bribes were promised between 2020 and 2024 to people in the Indian government in exchange for favourable terms on solar power contracts projected to bring in more than $2bn in profit.
The 62-year-old tycoon was indicted on charges including securities fraud and conspiracy alongside seven other business executives, including his nephew Sagar Adani.
In a parallel civil lawsuit, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said the alleged bribes were to “secure [the Indian government’s] commitment to purchase energy at above-market rates that would benefit Adani Green and Azure Power”, two renewable energy companies in India.
Impact on Adani Group: The indictments threaten to reignite a public relations crisis for the conglomerate he chairs, which has spent much of last year trying to move past claims of accounting fraud and stock market manipulation made by US short seller Hindenburg Research.
“These offences were allegedly committed by senior executives and directors to obtain and finance massive state energy supply contracts through corruption and fraud at the expense of US investors,” US deputy assistant attorney-general Lisa Miller said. Follow this developing story here.
Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:
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Economic data: The UK publishes October statistics on public sector finances.
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Companies: Investec, Jet2, Liontrust Asset Management and Mitie are among those reporting. See our Week Ahead newsletter for the full list.
Five more top stories
1. Nvidia’s revenue for the quarter to October 31 was $35.1bn, up 94 per cent from a year ago. It was a slower pace of growth from the previous quarter but still well above analysts’ expectations for $33.25bn. The chipmaker’s latest results reassure investors seeking signs of the strength of a boom that has made it world’s most valuable company.
2. An influential US congressional committee has refused to release a report about alleged sexual misconduct by Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump’s pick to be attorney-general. Democrats in Congress and some Senate Republicans had pressed for the report to be released, but many House Republicans have sought to shield Gaetz from dissemination of information that could hurt his standing. Read the full report.
Sign up for our White House Watch newsletter for more updates from Washington as it braces itself for Trump’s second term.
3. The departing head of John Lewis has described last month’s Budget as a “two-handed grab” from UK businesses, saying the group faces “tens of millions” of pounds in additional costs from next year following the changes to employers’ national insurance and a lack of early reform in business rates. Nish Kankiwala is the latest business leader to bemoan the impact of the Budget.
4. Bank of America is drawing up plans to structure risk transfer deals for smaller lenders, a move that could turbocharge the market of so-called synthetic risk transfers at a time of heightened scrutiny. While European banks have been using SRTs for more than a decade and still dominate the market, large US lenders have flocked to it since the Federal Reserve blessed the transactions last year.
5. The UK Competition and Markets Authority will explore waving through more company mergers without forcing businesses to sell assets, weeks after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer claimed the agency was holding back Britain’s growth. “Sustainable growth across the whole of the UK economy was a key priority for the CMA,” chief executive Sarah Cardell told the Financial Times.
News in-depth
Olaf Scholz is facing a “Biden moment” amid growing pressure from his own party to abandon his bid for a second term as German chancellor. His dismal approval ratings have prompted some in the Social Democratic party to call on Scholz to step aside and make way for defence minister Boris Pistorius, who is the country’s most popular politician.
We’re also reading . . .
Chart of the day
The new European parliament has broken with decades of centrist consensus following elections in June, with EU centre-right lawmakers increasingly teaming up with the far right to dismantle the bloc’s green agenda, push for stricter curbs on immigration and set ultimatums on the formation of a new European Commission.
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Take a break from the news
From a fictionalised retelling of a real-life 1970s kidnapping to a tender novella by Anita Desai, and the conclusion of Pat Barker’s trilogy about the women at the edges of Homer’s Iliad — here are the best novels of 2024 as selected by Laura Battle.
