Three Adani Group companies, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, Adani Transmission and Adani Green Energy, have pledged shares for lenders of Adani Enterprises, SBICAP Trustee Co said in an exchange filing on Friday. SBICAP Trustee Co is a unit of the State Bank of India, India’s biggest bank by assets.
The trustee said it had pledges for shares worth 1% of Adani Ports, up from 0.65%, for 0.55% of Adani Transmission, up from 0.44%, and for 1.06% of Adani Green, up from 0.68%. It said it had received the pledges in its capacity as “security trustee” of the lenders of Adani Enterprises.
Adani Group stocks have been seeing a massive rout since January 24 when US-based short seller Hindenburg Research released a report on the Gautam Adani-controlled companies. The report alleged that the power-to-airports conglomerate was involved in stock manipulation and improper use of offshore tax havens.
The conglomerate, in its reply, has rejected the firm’s findings and denied any wrongdoing. The Securities and Exchange Board of India is investigating the Adani group’s links to some of the investors in the conglomerate’s aborted share sale, a Reuters report said on Friday.
On Friday, National Stock Exchange removed Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone and Ambuja Cements from the additional surveillance framework with effect from February 13. NSE’s move comes days after the exchange had placed three Adani group stocks – Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, and Ambuja Cements under additional surveillance measures (ASM) to curb excessive volatility.
Asia Index Pvt Ltd on Friday said Adani Wilmar, AGS Transact Technologies and Vedant Fashions would be dropped from the S&P BSE IPO index. The reconstitution would be effective February 20, 2023, S&P Dow Jones and BSE stated in a joint release.
Earlier, MSCI Inc said it has received feedback from different market participants on eligibility and free float determination of specific securities associated with the Adani Group for the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes (GIMI). The free-float of a security, as per MSCI, is the proportion of shares outstanding that is considered available for purchase in the public equity markets by international investors.
The Hindenburg report came at a time when the group had decided to float a Rs 20,000 crore (USD 2.5 billion) follow-on public offer (FPO) by its flagship firm Adani Enterprises.
Despite the report, the company went ahead with the FPO launch. The FPO sailed through the initial hiccups and was fully subscribed on January 31. The company claimed that the FPO saw 112 per cent subscriptions mainly due to HNI investors on the final bidding day. But within a day, the company declared it has cancelled its Follow-On Public Offering (FPO) and will return money to its investors.
Adani Enterprises said: “The Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held today i.e. February 1, 2023, has decided, in the interest of its subscribers, not to proceed with the further public offer (FPO) of equity shares aggregating up to Rs 20,000 crore of face value Rs 1 each on partly paid-up basis, which was fully subscribed.”
Gautam Adani, Chairman of Adani Enterprises, said that the decision was taken amid the fluctuations the group’s stocks saw during the day’s trading.
“The Board takes this opportunity to thank all the investors for your support and commitment to our FPO. The subscription for the FPO closed successfully yesterday. Despite the volatility in the stock over the last week, your faith and belief in the Company, its business, and its management has been extremely reassuring and humbling. Thank you,” Adani said in a press statement.
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