Adani group stocks such as Adani Enterprises Ltd , Adani Green Energy Ltd, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd and Adani Power Ltd led fall at Adani group in Thursday's trade, denting the group market capitalisation by over Rs 35,600 crore, thanks to a OCCRP report alleging millions of dollars getting traded in some Adani stocks via opaque Mauritius funds that obscured involvement of business partners of the Adani family. The investigative reporting platform, backed by George Soros, cited review of files from multiple tax havens and internal Adani Group emails, saying its investigation found at least two cases where investors bought and sold Adani stock through such offshore structures.
The Adani group categorically rejected the "recycled allegations" of the non-profit media organisation and said the news reports appear to be yet another concerted bid by Soros-funded interests supported by a section of the foreign media to revive the meritless Hindenburg report.
Adani group stocks, however, stayed under pressure. The combined m-cap of 10 listed Adani group companies fell Rs 35,624 crore to Rs 10,49,044.72 crore against Rs 10,84,668.73 crore on Wednesday. Adani Enterprises' m-cap fell by Rs 9,570.31 crore while that of Adani Green Energy's by Rs 6,200 crore. Adani Ports and Adani Power was Rs 5,000-5,300 crore of m-cap erosion. Adani Energy Solutions took nearly Rs 3,000 crore m-cap hit while the market value of Ambuja Cements Declined Rs 2,680 crore.
Extending its fall, Adani Enterprises shares fell 5.11 per cent to hit a low of Rs 2385 on BSE. Adani Ports fell 2.92 per cent to Rs 795.10. Adani Power tanked 4.45 per cent to Rs 313.80. Adani Energy Solutions (erstwhile Adani Transmission) fell 3.53 per cent to Rs 812.05. Adani Green tumbled 4.37 per cent to Rs 928.25. Adani Wilmar, Adani Total Gas, ACC and NDTV fell up to 3.2 per cent.
The Adani group said the OCCRP claims are based on closed cases from a decade ago when the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) probed allegations of over invoicing, transfer of funds abroad, related party transactions and investments through FPIs. An independent adjudicating authority and an appellate tribunal had both confirmed that there was no over-valuation and that the transactions were in accordance with applicable law," Adani group said in response.
The Adani group said the matter attained finality in March when the Supreme Court of India ruled in its favour.
"Clearly, since there was no over-valuation, there is no relevance or foundation for these allegations on transfer of funds. Notably, these FPIs are already part of the investigation by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). As per the Expert Committee appointed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court, there is no evidence of any breach of the Minimum Public Shareholding (MPS) requirements or manipulation of stock prices," Adani group said.
The group added that "it is unfortunate that these publications, which sent us queries, chose not to carry our response in full."
These attempts, the Adani group said, are aimed at, inter alia, generating profits by driving down our stock prices and these short sellers are under investigation by various authorities.