CDPQ says employees charged in US indictment were terminated in 2023, cooperating with authorities

The indictment by the US Attorney, Easter District of New York Area also charged former employees of Azure Power, an Indian portfolio company of CDPQ.

Canada’s second-largest pension fund manager, with significant investments in India, on November 21 said that its former employees, who were named in an indictment in the US on charges of bribing Indian government officials, were terminated by the pension fund in 2023.

“CDPQ is aware of charges filed in the U.S. against certain former employees. Those employees were all terminated in 2023 and CDPQ is cooperating with U.S. authorities,” a spokesperson for CDPQ told Moneycontrol.

“In light of the pending cases, we have no further comment at this time,” the statement added.

Former CDPQ employees named in the indictment along with Indian billionaire Gautam Adani include Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra.

Cabanes was a managing director for infrastructure for the Asia Pacific region for CDPQ, while Agarwal was CDPQ’s India managing director and Malhotra served as the director of infrastructure for South Asia, at the time of their departure from the Canadian pension fund.

The indictment by the US Attorney, Easter District of New York Area also charged former employees of Azure Power, an Indian portfolio company of CDPQ.

Ranjit Gupta, formerly the CEO of Azure and Rupesh Agarwal, Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer have been named in the US indictment. Azure Power is majority owned by CDPQ.

CDPQ did not comment on a query seeking response on the impact of the US indictment on its Indian operations.

CDPQ’s investments in the Indian energy and infrastructure space include Azure Power, a renewable energy company, Apraava Energy, a power company where it holds a 50 percent stake and Maple Highways, a roads platform.

Azure Power in December 2021 has signed its largest ever Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) for a capacity of 2,333 MW of solar power projects under a 4 GW manufacturing linked projects contract it had won from SECI earlier. Commissioning of these projects are scheduled in phases with 1,000 MW by November 2024, 1,000 MW by November 2025 and balance 333 MW by November 2026, Azure had said in a statement in December 2021.

In November 2022, Maple Highways, announced that it had completed the acquisition of the Eastern Peripheral Expressway, from the National Highways Authority of India under the toll-operate-transfer model for a value of Rs 6,267 crore. The Eastern Peripheral Expressway encircles the Delhi National Capital Region.

Maple Highways operates its road platform through a SEBI registered infrastructure investment trust - Indian Highways Concession Trust.

CDPQ, which opened its India office in 2016, had invested $7 billion in the country as of December 31, 2023.