Billionaire Adani's shares nosedive to make a loss of Rs 73, 250cr in an hour

Mumbai: India's second richest and the founder of Adani Group, Gautam Adani, faced a big loss of fortune to the tune of nearly Rs 73,250 crore in an hour as the shares of his group crashed following reports of account freezing by National Securities Depository Limited of 3 foreign funds that have significant share claims in his four companies.

Soon after the reports of NSDL having frozen accounts of Albula Investment Fund, Cresta Fund, and APMS Investment Fund, the three Mauritius-based foreign portfolio investors, flashed, the group shares listed in the national exchanges witnessed a sharp tumbling.

The NSDL website acknowledged the account freezing of the three PFIs, which has reportedly a share claim of over 43,500 crores in Adani's four companies.

All three PFIs together have 6.82 per cent in Adani Enterprises, 8.03 per cent in Adani Transmission, 5.92 per cent in Adani Total Gas and 3.58 per cent in Adani Green.

Shares of Adani Enterprises fell at least 25 per cent intra-day to Rs 1,201 on the BSE on Monday, while Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone plunged by 19 per cent during the day to Rs 681.50 and Adani Total Gas, Adani Transmission, Adani Power and Adani Green Energy lost 4-5 per cent of their value.

Experts suggested that the failure in submitting the details of the beneficiary of these foreign funds might have led to the freezing of its accounts. Under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the absence of a complete detail regarding the ownership of the funds amounts to non-compliance with the rules that in turn invokes stringent actions against the firms.

The account freezing will restrain foreign funds from making any transactions such as selling its securities and buying new ones.

According to another report, a clarification statement by the Adani Group limited the share collapse to some extent. The statement called the freezing "blatantly erroneous", which has caused irreparable damage to the Group's reputation and the economic value to the investors at large.

The Group clarified that "they have their written confirmation vide its e-mail dated 14th June 2021, that the Demat Account in which the aforesaid funds hold the shares of the Company, are not frozen."