LIC has raised its stakes in four of the six companies – Adani Green Energy, Adani Total Gas, Adani Enterprises and Adani Transmission in the March quarter 
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LIC has raised its stakes in four of the six companies – Adani Green Energy, Adani Total Gas, Adani Enterprises and Adani Transmission in the March quarter Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has said that state-run insurance major Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has been forced to invest its policyholders' funds to bail out the Adani Group after the group stocks lost almost 50-80 per cent in the aftermath of Hindenburg Research's explosive report.
On Tuesday, Ramesh stressed that a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe is essential and urgent at this hour.
LIC added 3.57 lakh shares in Adani Enterprises during the March quarter, data compiled from BSE and corporate database AceEquity showed. LIC has raised its stakes in Adani Green Energy, Adani Total Gas and two other Adani group stocks in the March quarter, while it had cut down stakes in two others, Ambuja Cements and Adani Ports & SEZ.
This was the seventh straight quarter when the insurance behemoth bought an additional stake in the Adani group firm. LIC held 4.26 per cent stake in Adani Enterprises as on March 31, 2023, against 4.23 per cent as on December 31, 2022.
“The revelation that LIC's holding in Adani Enterprises has increased while its stock value has fallen sharply once again strengthens the case for a JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee) to investigate the PM-linked Adani 'Mega Scam'," Ramesh tweeted on Tuesday.
He added that LIC’s stakes in Adani Enterprises, the flagship company of the Adani Group, at the end of June 2021 was 1.32 per cent, which has risen to 4.23 per cent by the end of December 2022.
"Now it turns out that LIC’s holding in Adani Enterprises had further increased to 4.26 per cent by the end of March 2023," he further said in his statement.
In the past questions were raised on LIC's exposure to Adani Group companies after Hindenburg Research had accused the Adani group of accounting frauds, stock manipulations and money laundering. On January 30, six days after the report went public, LIC said its total exposure to Adani group’s debt and equity was around Rs 36,474.78 crore, which was not even 1 per cent of its total investments.
LIC's total assets under management stood at over Rs 41.66 lakh crore as of September 2022.
On Tuesday, Ramesh said that the LIC is being used to bail out the Adani Group at a time when its market value took a hit and Adani Enterprises’ stock prices fell by almost 60 per cent.
“Very clearly, LIC is being forced to use its policyholders’ funds to bail out the PM’s favorite business group which is under siege. This makes the constitution of a JPC all the more essential and urgent,” Ramesh said in the statement.
Revised LIC’s stakes in Adani Group companies
According to the data from BSE and corporate database AceEquity, LIC's stake in Adani Enterprises and Adani Transmission rose by 3 bps each sequentially. The institutional investor held 4.26 per cent stake in Adani Enterprises against 4.23 per cent QoQ.
In Adani Green Energy, LIC owned 2,14,70,716 shares or 1.36 per cent stake as of March 31. This was 8 bps higher than 1.28 per cent stake it held in the December 2022 quarter.
LIC upped stake in Adani Total Gas by 6 bps to 6.02 per cent against 5.96 per cent at the end of October-December quarter in FY2023.
In Adani Transmission, LIC upped stake to 3.68 per cent from 3.65 per cent.
LIC kept its stakes in ACC as is. At the end of March quarter, it had 6.41 per cent stake in the cement company.
Two stocks Ambuja Cements (6.3 per cent from 6.33 per cent) and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (9.12 per cent from 9.14 per cent) saw marginal cut in holdings by LIC in the March quarter.
Political uproar
The Congress and other Opposition parties have been asking for a JPC probe into the Adani group in the wake of the Hindenburg report.
Recently, NCP leader Sharad Pawar said that the Supreme Court panel’s probe into the Hindenburg research report on the Adani group will be more effective instead of a JPC investigation.
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