Adani Enterprises Ltd’s plan of the first-ever public sale of bonds for raising around Rs10 billion ($122 million) was shelved, reported Bloomberg News on Saturday. Indian billionaire Gautam Adani’s flagship firm had decided that the public note issuance will take place in January, working with AK Capital, Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd, Trust Capital and JM Financial, however, the activity has been stopped now, stated the report citing people who have knowledge of the matter, said the report.
On Wednesday, in a dramatic reversal, the follow-on public offering (FPO) of Adani Enterprises worth $2.5 billion was called off after a report prepared by Hindenburg Research led to the massive fall in the value of the group’s stocks.
The matter is being investigated by the Indian markets regulator, and they are also looking at the crash in the shares of the company, the presence of any irregularities in the sale of shares which were shelved and the possibility of price manipulation.
Last week, Hindenburg Research’s report alleged that the Adani Group has been making improper use of offshore tax havens and has been involved in stock manipulation.
Concerns were also raised on the valuation and high debt of Adani’s seven listed companies.
India’s image not impacted by Adani’s FPO pullout: FM
Speaking on the sudden pullout of $2.5 billion FPO by Adani, India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said that the economic image of India has not been affected by the decision.
“Our macroeconomic fundamentals or our economy’s image, none of which has been affected. Yes, FPOs (follow-on public offers) come in, and FIIs (foreign institutional investors) get out,” Sitharaman said.
The minister added that every market goes through “fluctuations”, however, the market’s accretion in the last few days reflects the fact that the perception of the country as well as its inherent strengths are intact.
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She added that the independent financial sector regulators of the country are looking into the allegations against the Adani Group and the markets’ stability can be maintained by the capital markets watchdog Securities and Exchange Board of India.
“For keeping the markets regulated in prime condition, the Sebi is the authority. And it has the wherewithal to keep that prime condition,” she added.
Adani to appoint Big 4 firm to conduct ‘general audit’
One of the biggest international partners of Adani, TotalEnergies (TOT), said that preparations are taking place for the appointment of a global accounting firm to conduct Adani group’s “general audit”.
In a statement, the French firm said it “welcomes the announcement by Adani to mandate one of the ‘big four’ accounting firms to carry out a general audit”.
The energy giant claimed that the investments made by them in Adani’s entities are “in full compliance” with Indian laws and as per its own internal governance processes.
It added that the investments have been made diligently and to its “satisfaction” and were “consistent with best practices.”
‘SEBI is committed to ensuring market integrity’
In a statement issued over market stability, SEBI said on Saturday that the financial market of India has demonstrated stability and is functioning in “a transparent, fair and efficient manner”.
“During the past week, unusual price movement in the stocks of a business conglomerate has been observed. As part of its mandate, SEBI seeks to maintain orderly and efficient functioning of the market and has put in place a set of well defined, publicly available surveillance measures (including the ASM framework) to address excessive volatility in specific stocks. This mechanism gets automatically triggered under certain conditions of price volatility in any stock,” the statement read.
“Further, in all specific entity related matters, if any information comes to SEBI’s notice, then, as per extant policies, the same is examined and after due examination, appropriate action is taken. SEBI has consistently followed this approach on entity level issues and would continue to do so in future as well,” it added.
(With inputs from agencies)
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