Shareholder were aghast as the market favourite Adani group stocks sank in Monday’s trade and shareholders lost heavily as the market-cap of Adani group stocks fell nearly by Rs 1.03 lakh crore in a single session.
The Allegation
ET headlined a story stating accounts of three foreign funds that are big stakeholders of Adani group companies were frozen by the depository NSDL, leading to panic selling in across the board Adani stocks which had gained between 100%-800% in the last one year.
The Clarification
Adani Group wrote to NSDL to clarify on the allegations, the depository in a response India’s second biggest conglomerate stated that the status of the demat accounts of the three funds holding shares in Adani Group companies is “active” in the NSDL system.Gautam Adani backed firms then informed stock exchanges that the demat accounts in which these foreign funds hold their shares were not frozen. The accounts in question are of Albula Investment Fund, Cresta Fund and APMS Investment Fund, which together own shares worth more than Rs 43,500 crore in Adani Group stocks.
The Confusion: So is NSDL the order old or incorrect?
NSDL officials quoted by Indian Express & Moneycontrol stated that the reason why the NSDL website continues to reflect the name of these three foreign funds — Albula Investment Fund, Cresta Fund and APMS Investment Fund — in the list of frozen accounts as on May 31, 2021, was because these accounts were different from those which held shares of Adani Group companies and this punitive action pertains to older cases.
Reuters as well quoted an unnamed NSDL official as saying the freeze is on accounts of the funds that hold certain other securities and is not new. "NSDL hasn't taken any action now,”
The Response: Adani hits back
The Adani group hit back, stating to the exchange "We regret to mention that these reports are 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. We are issuing this letter in the larger public interest and for the protection of minority investors interest"