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Indian billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani has lost $9 billion after a media report questioning about some offshore investors triggered a rout in his conglomerate’s six listed stocks.
The Economic Times reported that the country’s national share depository froze the accounts of three Mauritius-based funds due to lack of sufficient information on the owners. Albula Investment Fund, Cresta Fund and APMS Investment Fund’s holdings, around $6 billion, are the shares of Adani-owned firms.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, one of the wealthiest people in the world, lost more money than anyone else with his personal fortune falling down by $9 billion to $67.6 billion. Moreover, Adani Group stocks continued to decline on June 17. Adani Green Energy’s shares have went down by 7.7 percent this week. Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone declined by 23 percent in four days. Adani Power, Adani Total Gas, and Adani Transmission slipped at least 18 percent along with flagship Adani Enterprises falling by almost 15 percent.
The Adani Group has labelled the report as ‘blatantly erroneous’ and claimed that it was done intentionally to mislead the investing community. Investors concerned over clarity have exited.
As per Bloomberg Intelligence, the Mauritius offshore funds hold more than 90 per cent of their assets under Adani Group companies’ management.
Hemindra Hazari, Mumbai-based independent research analyst said, “There should be greater clarity to ensure who the final owners of the shares are.”
Adani Group stated on June 14 that the overseas funds have invested in Adani Enterprises Ltd. for more than a decade. They have urged the stakeholders to not be perturbed by market speculations.
Additionally, the Adani Group companies had written confirmation from the Registrar and Transfer Agent that the offshore funds’ Demat accounts in which the shares were held are not frozen.