Billionaire Gautam Adani saw a massive downturn in his fortune after shares of all six Adani Group companies hit lower circuits on Monday morning. Adani Ports and Adani Transmission saw a fall of 15 percent each while the other four companies’ shares were down at least 5 percent. The flagship company Adani Enterprises witnessed the worst with its share price falling as much as 25 per cent.
The falling share prices reportedly wiped out approximately Rs 55,000 crore (more than $7.6 billion) from Gautam Adani’s net worth, as of 10 am, on June 14.
What caused the prices of Adani Group companies’ shares to fall?
The massive fall in share prices followed media reports of the suspension of three foreign accounts which had invested more than Rs 43,000 crore in the Gautam Adani-led group.
National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) reportedly suspended the accounts of Albula Investment Fund, Cresta Fund and APMS Investment Fund, on or before May 31. Notably, all three accounts are claimed to be based out of the same address.
A leading media house reported that the reason behind the suspension of the three Adani Group-linked accounts could be because of insufficient disclosures under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
As per a prominent research and media company, more than 95 percent of the net worth of the three funds comes from their Adani Group investments.
Furthermore, it is reported that the Indian market regulator SEBI is also investigating if the Adani Group companies’ share prices have been manipulated.
Adani Group issues clarification
In a stock exchange filing, Adani Group’s flagship company Adani Enterprises called the reports “blatantly erroneous” and “done to deliberately mislead the investing community.” The filing further said that the reports were causing “irreparable loss of economic value to the investors at large and reputation of the group.”
Adani Group has stated it has an email saying that “the Demat Account in which the aforesaid funds hold the shares of the company were not frozen." The email, it says, is from the "Registrar and Transfer Agent.”
The clarification helped the company recover from the price plunge earlier during the day.
