Chairman of Indian conglomerate Adani Group Gautam Adani addresses the World Congress of Accountants in Mumbai on November 19, 2022.
Indranil Mukherjee AFP | Getty Images
Stocks of India Adani company plunged last week following the release of a lengthy critical report by US short seller Hindenburg Research. Some big international players are exposed.
Companies across the Adani group of companies experienced a huge sell-off, taking the entire group’s losses to over $110 billion by Friday’s close after the Hindenburg report accused the conglomerate of “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud over the decades”. .
The Ports-to-Energy conglomerate, run by one of the richest men in the world, Gautam Adani, has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
Adani Enterprises has suffered the biggest loss among the broader group’s many publicly traded companies, shedding more than 60% of its market cap — or more than $30 billion — between the report’s Jan. 24 release and Thursday’s close.
Adani owns 64% of Adani Enterprises – the Adani SB family owns 55.27% while 8.73% is held by Adani Tradeline Pvt Ltd where Gautam and his brother Rajesh Adani are the controlling directors.
Top 20 Shareholders of Adani Enterprises
| institutions / insiders | Property (%) | Shares (in thousands) |
|---|---|---|
| ADANI SB FAMILY | 55.3 | 630,034.7 |
| Adani Tradeline Pvt Ltd | 8.7 | 99,491.7 |
| Life Insurance Company of India | 4.0 | 45,815.0 |
| Green Enterprises Investment HLdg | 3.5 | 40,191.0 |
| Flourishing trade and investment | 3.0 | 33,937.7 |
| Trade and Investment in Afroasia | 2.7 | 30,249.7 |
| Worldwide Emerging Market Hldg | 2.7 | 30,249.7 |
| HSZ (Hong Kong) | 1.7 | 19,295.4 |
| Elara Capital Plc | 1.7 | 19.190.1 |
| MM Warburg Bank (Switzerland) | 1.3 | 14,290.9 |
| The Vanguard Group, Inc. | 0.7 | 8,497.0 |
| SBI Funds Management Pvt | 0.6 | 7,195.0 |
| BlackRock Fund Advisor | 0.6 | 6,454.2 |
| Top Trade & Investment | 0.3 | 3,986.0 |
| UTI Wealth Management | 0.2 | 2,237.5 |
| BlackRock Advisors (UK) | 0.2 | 1,901.3 |
| Kotak Mahindra AM | 0.1 | 1,281.8 |
| Geode capital management | 0.1 | 1,114.0 |
| Dimensional Fund Advisor | 0.1 | 831.1 |
| Nippon Life India in the morning | 0.1 | 737.3 |
Source: FactSet as of 3 Feb 1030 UTC
The third largest shareholder is the state-owned Indian Life Insurance Corporation of India with 4.02%. Morning sessions in both chambers of India’s parliament were adjourned on Friday as opposition leaders called for an inquiry into allegations against Adani, who is a close associate of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Indian Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi reportedly told reporters on Friday that the government had “nothing to do with Adani affairs”.
Adani Enterprises’ list of top 20 shareholders also includes two of the biggest names on Wall Street: Vanguard owns 0.75% of the shares, while BlackRock Fund Advisors owns 0.57% and BlackRock Advisors (UK) Ltd owns 0 .17% holds.
Elara Capital, which currently owns 1.7% of Adani Enterprises, was the largest institutional shareholder until February 2022, ownership data shows.
Hindenburg has accused Elara’s Mauritius-based funds of being part of a scheme to manipulate the share prices of Adani Group companies and hide how much the family owned. According to FactSet data, Elara has since sold 72% of the shares in the company.
Jo Johnson, the brother of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, stepped down from his role as director of Elara on Wednesday, according to Companies House.
Elara Capital and Johnson did not immediately respond to CNBC requests for comment.
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