Adani group rejects reports of foreign investors’ accounts freeze

INDIAN billionaire Gautam Adani's group on Monday (14) said reports about accounts of three Mauritius-based funds that own the conglomerate's stocks being frozen were "blatantly erroneous and misleading".

Shares of the Adani group companies plunged on Monday (14) following reports that the National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) froze the accounts of the three foreign funds that own a substantial stake in the group companies.

Adani Enterprises, the group's flagship company, as well as Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, Adani Green Energy Ltd, Adani Transmission Ltd, Adani Power and Adani Total Gas Ltd made an identical filing to the stock exchanges.

The filing said the reports of NSDL freezing accounts of Albula Investment Fund, Cresta Fund and APMS Investment Fund holding shares in the group firms were "blatantly erroneous and were done to deliberately mislead the investing community."

"This is causing irreparable loss of economic value to the investors at large and reputation of the group," the filing said.

In an email to the Adani group, NSDL said, "the status of demat accounts mentioned in your trail email are held in 'Active' status in NSDL system".

"Given the seriousness of the article and its consequential adverse impact on minority investors, we requested Registrar and Transfer Agent, with respect to the status of the Demat Account of the aforesaid funds and have their written confirmation vide its e-mail dated 14 June 2021, clarifying that the Demat Account in which the aforesaid funds hold the shares of the Company are not frozen,” Adani Enterprises said in a statement.

The three funds are among the top 12 investors and owned about 2.1 per cent to 8.91 per cent stakes in five Adani Group companies as of March 31, 2020.

The value of their holding in the five Adani group firms was valued at $7.78 billion (£5.52bn) before the stocks nosedived on Monday (14).

"Adani portfolio continues its journey of exponential growth across all verticals thus ensuring immense value to its stakeholders. We urge all our stakeholders not to be perturbed by market speculations," the statement said.