Moody's Investors Service on Friday warned that the rout in Adani Group shares could hurt the conglomerate's ability to raise capital, while its peer Fitch saw no immediate impact on its ratings. Adani Group's listed companies have lost over USD 100 billion in value in just over a week after short-seller Hindenburg Research's scathing report flagged concerns about the ports-to-energy conglomerate's debt levels and alleged stock manipulation, accounting fraud and the use of tax havens.
Amid a debate over 70-90-hour work week, the pre-Budget Economic Survey on Friday cited studies to state that spending over 60 hours a week on work could have adverse health effects. The survey noted that spending long hours at one's desk is detrimental to mental well-being and individuals who spend 12 or more hours (per day) at a desk have distressed or struggling levels of mental well-being.
"This is ENTIRE political science," Jairam Ramesh said apparently taking a dig at PM Narendra Modi.
A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking investigation under the supervision of a sitting apex court judge against the Adani group of companies in light of the allegations made by the US-based Hindenburg Research.
The JD-U supreme leader, whose party, in Parliament, has been supporting the demand for a joint parliamentary committee probe, however, did not seem impressed with the Maratha strongman's preference for an investigation by a 'Supreme Court-appointed Committee'.
CreditSights has dialed back on its language on debt levels at richest Indian Gautam Adani's group but has maintained that the group's leverage is elevated. In a new note published after discussions with the group's management, CreditSights, a Fitch group firm, said it "has discovered calculation errors" in its recent debt report on two Adani Group companies but these did not change its investment recommendations. On August 23, CreditSights stated that the Adani group was "deeply over-leveraged" and may "in the worst-case scenario" spiral into a debt trap and possibly a default.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi's) investigation into the Hindenburg allegations is making slow progress when it comes to obtaining information from overseas regulators, particularly around ultimate beneficial ownerships of certain foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), said people in the know. "Establishing ultimate beneficial ownerships for FPIs is a very complex exercise. "Several jurisdictions allow omnibus structures where the end beneficiaries are not required to be captured or are based in some other geographies.
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".
Business conglomerate Adani Group's chairman Gautam Adani is now the world's second-richest person after overtaking Louis Vuitton's Bernard Arnault, according to Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires List. At the time of writing this report, Gautam Adani's net worth was $153.9 billion, compared to Arnault's net worth of $153.7 billion. Adani is now just behind business magnate Elon Musk, according to Forbes' data.
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to take on record the suggestion of one of the petitioners and a report published by Forbes in a batch of PILs on the recent Adani group shares crash triggered by Hindenburg Research's fraud allegations.
The 24th CPI(M) Party Congress commenced in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, with interim coordinator Prakash Karat emphasizing the need for Left unity to combat "Hindutva neo-fascism." He criticized the BJP-RSS government, accusing it of representing a "Hindutva-corporate nexus" and displaying "neo-fascist characteristics." Other Left leaders, including CPI general secretary D Raja and CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, echoed calls for unity and condemned the current political climate in India.
Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty ended lower on Friday, dragged by auto stocks and relentless foreign fund outflows. Weak US markets and tariff threats also dented investor sentiment. The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex dropped 424.90 points or 0.56 per cent to settle at 75,311.06.
Citing news reports, Ramesh said they have "exposed" in considerable detail how the process was manipulated to help the Adanis.
Soros, a Hungarian-American political activist, and his organisations like OSF have been accused by the ruling BJP of acting against India's interests. His utterances during the Adani-Hindenburg controversy also drew criticism from the party.
The take by the Economic Survey 2024-25 on work hour week had come weeks after Larsen & Toubro Ltd Chairman and Managing Director SN Subrahmanyan sparked off a raging debate on social media when he said employees should work 90-hour a week, including on Sundays rather than sit at home.
Richest Indian Gautam Adani's ports-to-power-to-cement conglomerate is "deeply overleveraged" with the group predominantly using debt to invest aggressively across existing as well as new businesses, CreditSights, a Fitch Group unit, said on Tuesday. In a report titled 'Adani Group: Deeply Overleveraged', CreditSights said, "In the worst-case scenario, overly ambitious debt-funded growth plans could eventually spiral into a massive debt trap, and possibly culminate into a distressed situation or default of one or more group companies." Starting out as a commodities trader in the late 1980s, the Adani group has diversified from mines, ports and power plants into airports, data centers and defence.
Gehlot said be it Adani or Amit Shah's son Jay Shah, Rajasthan will welcome all because it wants investment and employment.
Adani Enterprises, the flagship of Adani Group, said on Wednesday new businesses of renewables, data centres, airports and roads account for more than 33 per cent of earnings and it will complete all infrastructure projects on time. "We are laser focused on continuing our business momentum, in this market volatility. "We are confident in our internal controls, compliance and corporate governance.
Sebi is learnt to have written to several regulators including those in Bermuda, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, seeking detailed information on some FPIs.
The rout in Adani Group stocks after US-based short seller Hindenburg Research released a report on January 24 has sparked a rebound in trading activity this month. The average daily trading volume (ADTV) for the cash segment (both NSE and BSE combined) so far in February stands at Rs 59,346 crore, and is around 15 per cent more than the previous month's tally of Rs 51,844 crore, which was the lowest in six months. The ADTV for the futures and options (F&O) segment rose to a record Rs 204 trillion (notional turnover) against Rs 202 trillion in January.
Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani has overtaken Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani to become the richest Indian in the world with a net worth of $84.3 billion, according to Forbes Real-time billionaire list for 2023. Ambani overtook Adani after the Reliance Industries chairman's assets went up 0.19 per cent with an increase of wealth by $64 million while Gautam Adani's assets went down by 4.62 per cent with the industrialist's weath pegged at $84.1 billion according to the real time tracker of Forbes of 5 pm EST on Tuesday. Adani who figured among the top three billionaires in the world has dropped in the ranking to number 10 just below Mukesh Ambani.
Bajaj Finserv, Tata Steel, Larsen & Toubro, UltraTech Cement, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Tata Motors were among the gainers. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 4,486.41 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the BSE has announced that three Adani group companies -- Adani Enterprises, Adani Power and Adani Wilmar -- will move out of the short-term additional surveillance measure (ASM). The stocks will be excluded from the short-term ASM framework with effect from March 17, according to separate circulars available on the exchanges. The NSE and the BSE had put the three Adani group firms, including the flagship firm Adani Enterprises, under the ASM framework on March 8.
For more than a decade, sockpuppets - some of them being company employees - created 'puffery' around tycoon Gautam Adani, his family and the apples-to-airport group he helmed by adding non-neutral material and removing warnings from information on Wikipedia, the free internet-based encyclopedia has alleged. Adani, a first-generation entrepreneur, has lost over $70 billion in net worth and slipped to 25th rank on the world billionaire index from being Asia's richest and the world's third most wealthy businessman, in less than a month. This followed US short-seller Hindenburg Research accusing the group of accounting fraud, stock price manipulation and money laundering, allegations that the conglomerate has repeatedly denied, and threatened legal action.
Adani Group on Monday said that the promoters will pre-pay $1,114 million for the release of pledged shares of its firms ahead of the maturity in September 2024. These shares belong to Adani Ports & Special Economic Zones, Adani Green Energy and Adani Transmission, a statement said. "This is in continuation of promoters' assurance to pre-pay all share-backed financing," it said.
Financial index provider MSCI on Thursday said that it is reviewing the free float status of some Adani Group securities after market participants flagged concerns over eligibility of some of the group firms' securities for its indexes. MSCI defines the free float of a security as the proportion of shares outstanding that is considered available for purchase in the public equity markets by international investors. In a statement, the index provider said that it has received feedback from a range of market participants concerning the eligibility and free float determination of specific securities associated with the Adani Group for the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes.
A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud declined the plea of advocate M L Sharma who mentioned the matter.
Adani group firms Ambuja Cement Ltd and ACC Ltd on Thursday said no shares of the companies have been pledged by the promoters, who have only provided a "non-disposal undertaking". In a joint statement to stock exchanges, Ambuja Cement Ltd and ACC Ltd termed as "misleading" reports of pledging of shares by the promoters as part of financing their acquisition. "Consequently, there are market rumours that amid market volatility, there is a requirement to meet the top-up triggers where in there is selling pressure," the statement said.
'Balancing tunnel developments with ecological realities is a major challenge and, when overlooked, can contribute to mishaps.'
Leaders of several opposition parties were stopped by the police at Vijay Chowk in New Delhi as they took out a protest march from Parliament House to hand over a complaint to the Enforcement Directorate on the Adani issue.
The Rs 20,000 crore share sale of Adani group's flagship firm was fully subscribed on Tuesday after non-retail investors bid in big volumes, according to stock exchange data. As many as 4.62 crore shares were sought as against an offer of 4.55 crore.
From the 30 blue-chip stocks, Titan, Asian Paints, Nestle, Tech Mahindra, Reliance Industries, Zomato, Larsen & Toubro and Bajaj Finserv were among the laggards. Adani Ports, Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel and Tata Motors were among the gainers.
The Adani Group on Friday said it has acquired 27.26 per cent equity stake in NDTV from Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika Roy -- founders of the news broadcaster. "RRPR, an indirect subsidiary of the company and member of the promoter/promoter group of NDTV, has acquired a 27.26 per cent equity stake in NDTV from Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy by way of inter-se transfer...," said a regulatory filing from Adani Enterprises. On December 23, Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy had announced to sell 27.26 per cent out of their remaining 32.26 per cent shareholding in the NDTV to the Adani Group.
Sarma said the defamation case will be filed after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Guwahati on April 14.
The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Sebi to probe within two months allegations of stock price manipulation by the Adani group and any lapses in regulatory disclosures, and also set up a panel to look into protection of Indian investors after a damning report by a US short seller wiped out more than USD 140 billion of the conglomerate's market value. The top court while directing the setting up of a six-member committee headed by former apex court judge Justice A M Sapre for the assessment of the extant regulatory framework and for making recommendations to strengthen the process said it was appropriate to set up such a panel of experts in order to "protect Indian investors against volatility of the kind which has been witnessed in the recent past". The court-appointed Justice Sapre panel, which will be provided assistance by the Centre and other statutory agencies including the Sebi chairperson, will have to submit its report in a sealed cover within two months, said the bench which comprised Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala.
Thackeray also drew a comparison between the current regime and Hitler.
The company's comments came a day after Gandhi alleged in Lok Sabha that 'Mumbai airport, was taken away from GVK using agencies such as the CBI and the ED, and was given to Adani by the Government of India'.
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.
There seems to be no respite for Adani Group companies from the market carnage. All 10 stocks belonging to the conglomerate came under a fresh bout of intense selling pressure on Wednesday as the group's debt levels and repayment capabilities continued to plague investors. Analysts said investors are also concerned about whether the group will be able to maintain its pace of growth, given the current turmoil that has wiped out over Rs 12 trillion in market capitalisation (m-cap) since the start of the year.
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.