From the ABC:
The Commonwealth Bank has pulled out of its role as financial adviser to the controversial $16 billion Adani coal mine project in central Queensland, after the Federal Court put development on hold because of a bureaucratic bungle involving a skink and a snake.
The bank, Australia’s largest lender to resources projects, issued a statement confirming its role as financial adviser to the proposed Carmichael mine had been terminated.
The move came after the mine’s approval was declared invalid by the Federal Court because of issues arising from advice about two vulnerable animal species – the yakka skink and the ornamental snake.
Tim Buckley, from the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, said the Commonwealth Bank leaving its adviser role was a “major revelation”.
“It’s come out today that the Commonwealth Bank’s advisory mandate with Adani in Australia has lapsed,” he said.
But says Adani via The Australian:
Adani, which is estimated to have spent $3 billion on the project, including buying the Abbot Point port, denied last night that the Commonwealth Bank had withdrawn financial support for the project after pressure from green groups.
Adani said it had ended the relationship with the CBA. “Adani terminated the mandate on the basis of its own concerns over ongoing delays to a now five-year-long approvals process here in Australia,’’ the company said. “In the event the commonwealth approvals framework is not further undermined by activists seeking to exploit legal loopholes, enabling the project and the thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of investment it would bring to be delivered, Adani would happily work with the bank in the future.’’
Let the boondoggle go.
