- Wednesday, April 24, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), India’s state-owned insurance group and the single largest non-promoter domestic shareholder in five of the biggest companies of Adani Group by market capitalisation, on Friday (27) witnessed a bloodbath by losing Rs 16,627 crore (£1.64 billion) on account of decline in value of its holdings in those firms.
The value of LIC’s holdings of Adani Group companies fell from Rs 72,193 crore (£7.1 billion) on Tuesday (24) to Rs 55,565 crore (£5.49 billion) on Friday, a 22 per cent slip, the Indian Express reported.
Adani Group’s shares also got hammered on Friday with it losing Rs 3.37 lakh crore (£33.3 billion) in aggregate market capitalisation in a single day.
The group’s shares came under pressure after a report by the US-based Hindenburg Research claimed that the Indian company got into stock manipulation and accounting fraud schemes over the last few decades.
The Indian company, led by Gautam Adani, one of the richest billionaires, hit back at the report calling it a “malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations that have been tested and rejected by India’s highest courts”.
Business Today reported that data available with Ace Equity showed that LIC held more than one per cent stake in Adani Enterprises, Adani Green Energy, Adani Ports, Adani Transmission, Adani Total Gas and recently acquired Ambuja Cements and ACC. Shares of these companies fell somewhere between 19 per cent and 27 per cent in the past two trading sessions, the report added.
