'Reports of freezing of investor accounts blatantly erroneous': Adani Group

The NSDL froze the accounts of Albula Investment Fund, Cresta Fund and APMS Investment Fund without citing any reasons for the freeze.

The Adani Group on Monday responded to the report on National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) freezing accounts of three foreign funds which together own between 2.1% and 8.91% stakes in five Adani Group companies as ‘blatantly erroneous’, according to news agency Reuters.

The logo of the Adani Group is seen on the facade of one of its buildings on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. (REUTERS)

The Adani Group also said that they have registrar and transfer agent confirmation that the demat account in which concerned funds with shares are present are not frozen.

The NSDL froze the accounts of Albula Investment Fund, Cresta Fund and APMS Investment Fund without citing any reasons for the freeze. Following the release of this report, Adani Enterprises, which consists of Adani Power, Adani Enterprises, Adani Green, Adani Transmission and Adani Total Gas Ltd, plunged as much as 25% on Monday. The Nifty-50 listed Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone fell by at least 19% before reducing some of its losses. The frozen accounts won’t be able to sell or buy new securities, news agency Bloomberg said.

The Albula Investment Fund, Cresta Fund and APMS Investment Fund are also among the top 12 investors in the Adani Group companies, according to its annual investor presentations as of March 31, 2020.

The value of the investments in these five companies spiked over ten-fold since the end of March 2020 to 56,932 crores as of Friday, according to a report by news agency Reuters.

This recent rally in shares of Adani Group companies over this period made company chairman Gautam Adani the second richest Asian, behind Mukesh Ambani, who is chairman of Reliance Industries.