The Economic Times on Monday reported that National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) froze the accounts of its three portfolio investors – Albula Investment Fund, Cresta Fund, and APMS Investment Fund.
The conglomerate refuted the media reports even after the sharp dip in the share prices calling the report “blatantly erroneous”.
This was followed by another statement on Tuesday citing communication from India’s national depository that the Demat accounts of these three funds’ are ‘suspended for debit’.
Adani Total Gas Ltd., Adani Power Ltd., and Adani Transmission Ltd. hit the lower circuit after dropping 5% each, leading to the sink-in stock valuation of $7 billion.
The plunge in the shares of the companies that had added almost $40 billion to the billionaire’s wealth this year, pulled down his net worth from $77 billion last week to $71 billion.
The CFO of Adani Group, Jugeshinder Singh told NDTV in an interview that the “foreign portfolio investors had invested in Adani Group’s incubation entity Adani Enterprises well before 2010 and it is not that these entities are new investors.”
“We bring to your kind attention, the news headlines published in ET that NSDL has frozen the accounts of 3 foreign funds-Albula Investment Fund, Cresta Fund, and APMS Investment Fund holding shares in Adani Group Companies.
We regret to mention that these reports are blatantly erroneous and are 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,” Adani group said in its statement.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, despite the slide in share prices, Adani remains the second richest Asian after Ambani as of 15 June.
“Due to vertical demergers in the company from time to time, these foreign investors received their proportion of shares in the demerged entities of Adani Enterprises,” he added.
Meanwhile, the American Credit Rating agency, Fitch Ratings has affirmed Adani Ports and Special Economic Zones Ltd’s (APSEZ) long-term foreign-currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘BBB–’ with a negative outlook.
It said, “APSEZ’s underlying credit profile reflects its status as the largest commercial port operator in India, with best-in-class operational efficiency.
Historically, the issuer has experienced throughput resilience in economic cycles, including the current Covid-19-related downturn.”
According to the data available with the BSE, the Adani Group has six listed companies – Adani Enterprises Ltd, Adani Ports, and Special Economic Zone Ltd, Adani Power Ltd, Adani Transmission Ltd, Adani Green Energy Ltd, and Adani Total Gas Ltd.
All six Adani group companies have seen a huge surge in their share prices over the last year adding to Gautam Adani’s wealth.
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