More trouble for Gautam Adani, Sebi slaps Adani Power with show cause notice; shares fall

In more trouble for embattled businessman Gautam Adani, the conglomerate's power generation company Adani Power said on Monday that it had received a show-case notice from capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in the second quarter of the current financial year. Adani Power shares, along with several other stocks of the group, faced selling pressure against the backdrop of the news. During the first half of the session, the Adani Power stock fell by as much as Rs 21, or 3.5 per cent, to Rs 578.1 apiece on BSE.  

At 11:50 am, while Adani Power shares were down 2.0 per cent at Rs 587 apiece, Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports were down 2.0 per cent each. Other group stocks like Adani Green Energy and Adani Total Gas were down around half a percentage point each. 

In the second quarter of the current financial year, SEBI completed one of its pending investigations and issued a show cause notice to Adani Power, "alleging wrongful categorisation of shareholding of certain entities" relating to the regulator's public shareholding norms and consequences therefrom, the power company said in a regulatory filing along with its financial results for the period. 

Adani Power said it is in the "process of responding to the regulatory and statutory authorities providing information, responses, documents and/or clarifications, as applicable".

The Adani group company also said its management believes that, based on legal opinions, all company transactions with third parties and all disclosures of promoter or public shareholdings are in compliance with applicable laws and regulations at the relevant time. "There is no non-compliance of applicable laws and regulations as alleged by the SCNs (show-cause notices) and no material consequential effects thereof to the current period and relevant years' financial statements/ financial results," Adani Power said.

The notices sent to Adani group companies were aligned with some of the barrage of serious allegations leveled by US-based research firm Hindenburg Research against the conglomerate, which has repeatedly denied the charges. 

Adani Power said its management concluded that there are no material consequences of the allegations mentioned in the short-seller's report and other allegations did not require any adjustments in this regard. "There are no changes to the above conclusions as at and of the six months ended 30th September, 2024," it noted. 

The development comes days after Adani Energy Solutions, another group company, confirmed it had received a show-cause notice from the regulator over similar issues. Adani Energy Solutions said the notice was related to the regulator's minimum public shareholding norms. 

Both Adani Power and Adani Energy Solutions are part of a conglomerate often considered excessively diversified by many analysts.

Additionally, SEBI's notice comes at a time when SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch herself has denied a series of serious charges against her by Hindenburg this year. 

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