Ajit Karn
LIC chairman M R Kumar said they will meet Adani group senior officials soon
Mumbai: On Thursday, the Chairman of the LIC, M R Kumar, said that representatives from the public sector insurer would shortly meet with senior management of the Adani Group in order to get explanation on the problem that the diverse conglomerate is now facing.
After a short-seller based in the United States, Hindenburg Research, made a litany of allegations against the Gautam Adani-led group, including that its companies manage and manipulate share prices, run offshore shell companies for round-tripping, and lack in corporate governance practises, investors and opposition parties began to criticise LIC’s investment into the stock of Adani group firms. This led to LIC’s investment being criticised by the opposition parties as well.
“Even though our investment team has already reached out to the Adanis for explanation, our senior management may not have a chance to get in touch with them just yet since we have been so busy preparing the results. They will soon get a call from us inviting them to come and explain everything to us. We are interested in learning about the current state of the market as well as the group “During Thursday’s results call, the chairman said to the press that.
“We’ll be bringing them in anytime soon to see how are they handling the entire problem,” Kumar continued. “We’ve got a lot riding on this.”
Also read:- Norway Wealth Fund sells Adani Group companies for $200 million.
Kumar, on the other hand, was unwilling to provide a schedule for the meeting between officials from LIC and the Adani group.
Since the Hindenberg report was published on January 24, three days before the launch of the group’s flagship Adani Enterprises’ 20,000 crore follow-on public offer (FPO), the value of the group companies’ stocks has decreased by more than USD 100 billion, which is approximately sixty percent from their value on January 24.
The FPO received a full complement of applications, however the administration decided to cancel it the next day.
