Amit Gupta is the owner of Agrifields DMCC, a fertilizer and phosphate trading company based out of Dubai.
According to Sydney Morning Heralds’ award-winning investigative journalist Nick McKenzie, Amit Gupta is an “alleged corporate crime kingpin and fugitive from justice has built a global business worth an estimated $800 million”, who had “had backed a political coup on the small Pacific
Island of Nauru by bribing multiple politicians who had plotted to topple the government.”
Gupta hoped that the new government “would give him complete control over the island nation’s lucrative mining rights”.
In 2020, “the AFP moved to seize multiple properties and bank accounts connected to Gupta in Australia, Singapore and New York worth an estimated $200 million.”
Gupta also has business interests in Africa in countries like Senegal and Algeria.
In Algeria, Gupta and his firm Agrifields DMCC trades with state-owned company Somiphos, which produces rock phosphate. According to Nick McKenzie, “Banking records suggest Gupta’s companies also paid suspected bribes to senior Algerian officials for mining concessions in Africa”.
Sydney Morning Herald goes on to say Gupta “issued fake invoices for phosphate bought from countries such as Togo.”
According to ABC, when “the world price rose to almost $400 in 2008, [Gupta’s former company] was paying as little as $43 per metric tonne.”
Furthermore, in Senegal, Gupta-owned Agrifields DMCC, along with two other entities, acquired Baobab Fertilizer Africa (BFA) from Avenira, an Australian company in 2019.
Coromandel International, a publicly-listed company in India that engages in fertilizer manufacturing, acquired 45% of BMCC (Baobab Mining and Chemicals SA) from Baobab Fertilizer Africa (BFA), its owner, which Amit Gupta acquired in 2019.
According to Coromandel International’s official website and Business Standard, Coromandel International paid $19.6 million for the partial acquisition and went on to further infuse US$9.7 million in loan financing to BMCC, and joined hands with Gupta.
Coromandels and the Gupta’s relationship dates over a decade, to Gupta and his family’s former company, Getax. Getax and Coromandel had a joint-venture together, Coromandel Getax Phosphates Pvt Ltd, which was shortlisted shortlisted by the Togolese Republic to develop carbonated phosphates in the West African country.
As the world’s attention on businessman Amit Gupta grows, we detail his business and dealings with Africa.
Disclaimer: This article is formulated by the extracts of numerous publications, including Sydney Morning Herald & ABC. For any queries, please contact the respective publications.
