Adani stocks hit hard; group m-cap drops Rs 80,000 crore to sub-Rs 9 lakh crore level in 3 days

After recovering sharply since February 27 low, shares of Adani group companies saw 8.23 per cent erosion in market capitalisation (m-cap) in a fresh bout of selling. In the three sessions to Tuesday, the m-cap of Adani group fell Rs 79,980 crore to Rs 8,90,750 crore compared with Rs 9,70,730 crore as on March 23.

The group m-cap got eroded by Rs 29,931.64 crore on Monday and Rs 594.18 crore on Friday, data compiled by corporate database AceEquity suggests.Among group shares, the flagship Adani Enterprises sank 7.08 per cent to Rs 1,601.25 on Tuesday. For the three-day period, it is down 11 per cent.

Adani Ports dropped 5.11 per cent to Rs 596.95, taking its three-day fall to 8.55 per cent.

The group shares fell amid a report by The Ken that raised questions about whether the group actually has repaid debts worth $2.15 billion. The Adani group had Adani earlier this month announced completion of the full prepayment of margin-linked share-backed financing, ahead of the committed timeline of March 31.

"Despite the Adani Group's claim of 'complete' repayment of $2.15 billion in share-backed debt, regulatory filings show that banks have not released a significant portion of the promoters' shares held as collateral, indicating that the debt has not been fully paid off," the Ken report said.

Adani Power, Adani Transmission, Adani Total Gas, Adani Green Energy, Adani Wilmar and NDTV locked at 5 per cent lower circuit limits each on Tuesday. ACC and Ambuja Cements, two Adani group cement stocks, slipped 4.22 per cent and 2.91 per cent, respectively. Among these stocks, NDTV plunged 13.77 per cent in the three-day period and was the worst performing Adani group stock. It was followed by Adani Power (down 13.59 per cent) and Adani Wilmar (down 12.60 per cent).

Ambuja Cements (down 3.49 per cent), Adani Green Energy (down 4.78 per cent), Adani Transmission (down 6.32 per cent) were among Adani group stocks that were least impacted in the three-day fall.

ACC and Adani Total Gas fell 7 per cent each in the three-day period.The Ken raised questions about whether the group actually has repaid debts worth $2.15 billion. The Adani group had Adani earlier this month announced completion of the full prepayment of margin-linked share-backed financing, ahead of the committed timeline of March 31.

The Ken report suggested that the Adani Group only reduced the loan amount through a partial repayment to avoid pledging more shares and further action against it by lenders. It alleged that following the Adani group’s prepayment announcement, banks have only released the pledged shares of Adani Ports.

It claimed that the pledged shares of Adani Green Energy and Adani Transmission had not been released by the bank even a month after the loan repayment announcement.

“This is highly unusual as pledged shares are usually released immediately after the borrower settles their debts," the report suggested.

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