Adani group terms reports of its foreign investors’ accounts being frozen erroneous

@the_news_21

Billionaire Gautam Adani’s group on Monday said it has written confirmation that accounts of three foreign funds that are among its top shareholders are not frozen and reports to the contrary are “blatantly erroneous and misleading”.

Shares of Adani group companies plunged on Monday after reports that the National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) froze the accounts of the three foreign funds that are among the top stakeholders in the firms.

Adani Enterprises, the conglomerate’s flagship company, as also Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, Adani Green Energy Ltd, Adani Transmission Ltd, Adani Power and Adani Total Gas Ltd in identical filings to the stock exchanges said the reports of NSDL freezing accounts of Albula Investment Fund, Cresta Fund and APMS Investment Fund holding shares in the group firms were “blatantly erroneous and is 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,” they said.

Given the seriousness of the issue and its consequential adverse impact on minority investors, “we requested Registrar and Transfer Agent, with respect to the status of the Demat Account(s) of the aforesaid funds and have their written confirmation vide its e-mail dated 14th June, 2021, clarifying that the Demat Account(s) in which the aforesaid funds hold the shares of the company are not frozen,” the firms said.

The NSDL website reportedly showed the accounts of Albula Investment Fund, Cresta Fund and APMS Investment Fund as being frozen without citing a reason.

The three funds feature among the top 12 investors and owned about 2.1 per cent to 8.91 per cent stakes in five Adani Group companies as of March 31, 2020, annual investor presentations show. The value of their holding in the five Adani group firms was valued at USD 7.78 billion before the stocks witnessed mayhem on Monday.