Parliament's Budget session has been a washout since the beginning of its second part on March 13, with the BJP demanding an apology from Gandhi.
A Reuters photographer captured a glimpse of Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani in Jaipur, the first time the billionaire has been seen in public after his recent troubles with US prosecutors.
While the collapse of a large financial intermediary can wreak havoc on the system because of the interconnectivity, a large business conglomerate too can play spoilsport if the banks have too much exposure to the entity, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Sensex sinks 573 pts on global tensions and high crude prices
Billionaire Gautam Adani on Tuesday did an hour-long session of yoga exercises in the open air as he led corporate India to join the International Day of Yoga celebrations. Several public and private sector companies held yoga sessions at their offices to promote the adoption of exercise in daily routines to stay fit and healthy. Adani, chairman of logistics-to-energy conglomerate Adani Group, and his wife Priti, who heads the Adani Foundation, "participated with more than 1,000 members of the Adani Parivaar team to celebrate health, mindfulness and meditation," the group said in a statement. The session was held at a football ground at Adani Shantigram in Ahmedabad. Several other business leaders tweeted pictures of their yoga sessions.
Billionaire Gautam Adani's group on Tuesday said it will prepay $130 million of debt as it looks to boost investor confidence post being targeted by a US short-seller. Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, the ports company of the Adani Group, had last month floated a tender to buy back as much as $130 million of its July 2024 bonds and similar amounts in each of the next four as it looked to regain investor confidence by showing that its liquidity position is comfortable. In a stock exchange filing, APSEZ said an aggregae principal amount of $412.7 million was validly tendered.
IndusInd Bank, Nestle, UltraTech Cement, Mahindra & Mahindra, Power Grid, Asian Paints, Sun Pharma and Tech Mahindra were also among the laggards. Bajaj Finance, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, Adani Ports and HCL Tech were among the gainers.
From the Sensex pack, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries were among the major laggards. Bucking the trend, auto stocks Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra closed with gains.
Auditor Deloitte flagged three transactions, including recoveries from a contractor identified in the Hindenburg report, as it issued a qualified opinion on the accounts of Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone.
The Adani group said Reliance Infrastructure, part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, had initiated arbitration on one specific dispute under the Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) in December 2021 with a claim for just Rs 500 crore. Adani said it has filed counterclaims against the Ambani company. The Adani group firm, Adani Electricity was reacting to a Reliance Infrastructure statement of last week, which said it has filed an arbitration claim of Rs 13,400 crore against Adani Group in the Mumbai Centre for International Arbitration (MCIA). Reliance had cited a breach of a December 2017 share purchase agreement relating to the transfer of its Mumbai power distribution business to Adani Transmission.
Confirming a meeting with the top management of the Adani Group, Life Insurance Corporation Chairman M R Kumar said on Sunday that the interaction had gone well. "There's nothing I can state as of now on the outcome of that meeting. "But yeah, we've had the meeting....we are quite happy about this meeting," Kumar said on the sidelines of the 22nd Global Conference of Actuaries in New Delhi.
The Supreme Court on Friday said it has no reason to "discredit" SEBI, which probed allegations against the Adani group, as there was no material before it to doubt what the market regulator has done and the court does not have to treat what was set out in the Hindenburg report as a "true state of affairs".
The embattled Adani Group on Monday attempted to calm the market as a rout in its shares continued, saying its growth plans are intact, business plans are fully funded and it remains confident of delivering returns to shareholders. Market value of the group's seven listed companies has halved since a January 24 report by US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research alleged that Adani pulled "the largest con in corporate history" using offshore tax havens and stock manipulation. The Group has denied all allegations, calling them "malicious", "baseless" and a "calculated attack on India".
In an interview to NDTV, Pawar came out in support of the Adani Group and criticised the narrative around Hindenburg Research's report on the conglomerate.
Embattled Adani Group on Monday said it has repaid loans aggregating $2.65 billion to complete a prepayment programme to cut overall leverage in an attempt to win back investor trust post a damning report of a US short seller. In a Credit Note released on Monday, Adani Group said it has made a full prepayment of $2.15 billion of loans that were taken by pledging shares in the conglomerate's listed firms and also another $700 million in loans taken for the acquisition of Ambuja Cement. "The prepayment was done along with interest payment of $203 million," it added.
From the Sensex firms, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Eternal, Asian Paints, NTPC, Bharat Electronics Ltd, Adani Ports, Infosys and State Bank of India were among the major gainers. However, Titan tumbled over 6 per cent. Trent, Axis Bank, Maruti and Hindustan Unilever were also among the laggards.
42 years of World Cup triumph: A Day that made Indian cricket what it is
Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has asked why SEBI has not yet got to the bottom of ownership of the four Mauritius-based funds who are said to have parked 90 per cent of their $6.9 billion in Adani group stocks, saying does the market regulator need help of investigating agencies for this? The funds -- Elara India Opportunities Fund, Cresta Fund, Albula Investment Fund and APMS Investment Fund -- have been under cloud for last couple of years after allegations that they may be shell companies. They came into focus once again in January when a US short seller alleged that Adani Group used offshore shell companies to inflate stock price.
Dominic Xavier offers his take on Adani group's takeover bid of of NDTV, arguably the rare English and Hindi news television network that is not part of what has come to be known as the godi media.
S&P Global Ratings on Tuesday said there will not be any significant direct financial spillover risks because of the problems being faced by the Adani group, though there can be some secondary impact such as banks undertaking extra due diligence while giving loans to corporate. S&P senior director (infrastructure & utilities ratings), Abhishek Dangra said as per external estimates, the exposure of the banking sector to Adani group companies is less than 1 per cent and also the credit ratings of the firms are not at 'distress level'.
Former India captain Mithali Raj has been roped in as mentor and advisor by Women's Premier League side Gujarat Giants.
When shorts are based on perceived corporate mismanagement or malfeasance, as in cases like Enron and Satyam, they enable the financial system to work efficiently, points out Devangshu Datta.
Richest Indian Gautam Adani-led group's flagship firm on Wednesday filed an offer letter with stock exchanges for a proposed Rs 20,000 crore follow-on public offer (FPO). The FPO of Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL) is planned to open on January 27 and close on January 31, according to the offer letter. Of the Rs 20,000 crore proceeds of the FPO, Rs 10,869 crore will be used for green hydrogen projects, work at the existing airports and construction of a greenfield expressway.
Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said they will pose three questions a day to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue.
Leading the Opposition attack over the Adani-Hindenburg issue in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday linked Gautam Adani's meteoric rise to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's coming to power and said "magic" happened after 2014 that propelled the businessman from the 609th to the second spot on the global rich list.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi told party's Lok Sabha MPs to ignore comments of "middle- and low-rung" leaders of INDIA bloc parties and asserted that the Congress as the largest party in the opposition grouping is capable of addressing issues, sources said. The advice by Gandhi comes amid various leaders of the INDIA bloc weighing in on the leadership issue and TMC leaders aggressively pitching for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to head the opposition alliance.
Ambani's wealth jumped $3.59 billion in the past 24 hours, while Adani added $2.96 billion to his net worth.
Ron Malka, former envoy of Israel to India, has said that he has assumed charge as the executive chairman of the Haifa Port Company (HPC) owned by a consortium led by the ports-to-energy conglomerate Adani Group. A consortium of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) and Israel's Gadot Group won the tender in July last year to privatise the strategic Port of Haifa in Israel for $1.18 billion. "I'm honoured and privileged to take office today as executive chairman of the Haifa Port Company, on behalf of @AdaniOnline.
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) on Wednesday said it has decided to exit its investment in Myanmar by June next year. APSEZ, the largest port developer in India, is part of the globally diversified Adani Group. "The Board has decided to actively work on a plan on exiting Company's investment in Myanmar including divestment opportunities (expected to be concluded by March - June 2022)," APSEZ said in notes to its second quarter results.
The fire spread to over a dozen nearby camps, causing significant damage.
Adani Enterprises, which is launching India Inc's second-largest follow-on public offer worth Rs 20,000 crore next week, on Thursday said it is planning to enter the water segment as this is a key element of its core business of infrastructure. The group is into the entire gamut of infrastructure -- being its ports, airports, roads, expressways power generation & distribution, among others. In ports and airports, the group is the largest player in the private sector. Addressing media from Milan, group chief financial officer Jugeshinder Singh said the company has fixed the price band for the Rs 20,000-crore issue in the range of Rs 3,112-3,276 per share.
Adani Enterprises on Wednesday said it has decided to withdraw its fully subscribed Rs 20,000-crore follow-on public offer (FPO) and will return the proceeds to investors. The announcement came a day after the company's FPO was subscribed fully on the last day of the offer on Tuesday. "The Board of Adani Enterprises Ltd., (AEL) decided not to go ahead with the fully subscribed FPO.
Parliament remained paralysed for the sixth day in a row on Monday due to protests from rival sides.
The SEBI and the RBI will look into it. Let their reports come in, BJP MP Mahesh Jethmalani said.
Aviation regulator DGCA plans to implement measures to control excessive air ticket price increases, following concerns raised during a parliamentary panel meeting. The meeting also addressed air safety issues in light of the Ahmedabad plane crash.
It is the first airport in the country to have multi-modal connectivity. This includes a linkage to the project via road, rail, and a metro system.
Five state-run general insurance companies have a total exposure of Rs 347.64 crore, or 0.14 per cent of their total assets under management (AUM), in Adani group of companies, the finance ministry said on Monday. In a written reply to a question by Congress' Manish Tewari, Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad said Life Insurance Corp (LIC) held Rs 35,917.31 crore in debt and equity of Adani group of companies as on December 31, 2022. This is 0.97 per cent of its total assets under management (AUM) of Rs 41.66 trillion.
Uttam Ghosh offers his take on Gautam Adani's hostile takeover attempt of Radhika and Prannoy Roy's NDTV.
Adani group stocks have taken a beating on the bourses after Hindenburg Research made a litany of allegations, including fraudulent transactions and share price manipulation at the Gautam Adani-led group. The group has maintained it complies with all laws and disclosure requirements.
NDTV founders Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika Roy on Friday said they will sell all but 5 per cent of their remaining shareholding in the news broadcaster to Adani Group for up to Rs 647.6 crore. Roys, who founded New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) as India's first and largest private producer of news current affairs and entertainment television, lost their status of being the company's largest shareholder in recent weeks. This follows Adani Group becoming the majority shareholding of NDTV after first buying out a company backed by the founders and then acquiring more shares from the open market.
