Adani Group stocks bleed on OCCRP report; lose ₹26,000 cr in m-cap

Adani group shares were reeling under selling pressure on Thursday, with all 10 listed entities flashing in red after an adverse report by OCCRP, an investigative reporting platform, backed by George Soros and Rockefeller Brothers. The OCCRP report alleged the Adani Family partners invested millions of dollars in some publicly traded stocks of the group via Mauritius-based "opaque" investment funds.

The OCCRP in its report claimed two men, Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli and Chang Chung-Ling, who have close ties to the Adani family and have served as directors and shareholders in affiliated companies and firms associated with Gautam Adani's elder brother, Vinod Adani, "spent years buying and selling Adani stock through offshore structures that obscured their involvement - and made considerable profits in the process." The documents "show that the management company in charge of their investments paid a Vinod Adani company to advise them in their investment," it alleged.

The Adani group, however, categorically rejected the "recycled allegations", saying that the news reports appear to be yet another concerted bid by Soros-funded interests supported by a section of the foreign media to revive the meritless Hindenburg report.

The report came a day ahead of the crucial hearing of Adani-Hindenburg case in the Supreme Court. Last week, the capital market regulator SEBI submitted its status report on its investigations against the port-to-power conglomerate regarding allegations of stock price manipulation by the U.S.-based short-seller Hindenburg Research. 

This is the second major allegation against billionaire Gautam Adani-led conglomerate after an adverse report by Hindenburg released in January this year, which had alleged that the port-to-power conglomerate engaged in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades. 

Reacting to the news, all Adani group companies opened in red and shed up to 5% during the first three hours of trade so far. The Gajarat-based conglomerate lost more than ₹26,000 crore in market value as the total market capitalisation (m-cap) of ten listed entities dropped to ₹10.58 lakh crore from ₹10.84 crore at the end of trade yesterday.

Adani Power was the top laggard among the group companies, falling as much as 5.9% during the trade so far. Adani Group's flagship company, Adani Enterprises declined 5% intraday, while Adani Ports & SEZ fell 3.5% on the BSE. While Adani Green Energy and Adani Total Gas lost as much as 5.2% and 4%, respectively, ACC and Ambuja Cements shed 3.4% and 4.2%, respectively.

Among others, Adani Energy Solutions and Adani Wilmar lost 4.3% and 2.1%, respectively, while NDTV tumbled 3%.

This is turning out to be one of the biggest single-day losses for Adani stocks in recent times after the group last week reclaimed ₹11 lakh crore m-cap mark, hitting their six months highs. The recent rally in Adani stocks was attributed to investments by Rajiv Jain-led GQG Partners and bulk deal buzz in the group companies. 

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