Adani-Hindenburg Case: Supreme Court Panel Says Group Stocks Didn't Pose Any Systemic Risk
The representation of the Adani Group companies in the indices is 'relatively minor', says the expert committee.
The Supreme Court-appointed panel has concluded that, based on SEBI's findings, volatility in the Adani stocks after the Hindenburg Research report did not lead to any systemic risk.
"The events related to Adani Group companies did not have any significant impact at the systemic level," the panel led by Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre said in the report. BQ Prime has reviewed a copy of the report.
While the shares of the group companies saw a significant price decline on account of selling pressure subsequent to the Hindenburg report, and may have dominated the media attention, the market remained largely stable and resilient, the report said.
The representation of the Adani Group companies in the indices is "relatively minor" and given the limited free float market capitalisation of the group companies, the recent events did not pose any systemic market-level risk, according to the committee.
Even during the event, the market continued to function in a robust manner and volatility in India is on par with or lower than that in major developed markets, the panel's report said.
Based on SEBI's report, 849 alerts were generated on the Adani stocks by the exchange surveillance system and were segregated into four batches—two well prior to the Hindenburg report and two after Jan. 24, 2023, the panel said.
According to SEBI's analysis, no pattern of artificial trading or "wash trades" among the same parties multiple times were found, the panel said.
SEBI found FPIs under investigations were net sellers, the committee said. One investing entity that bought Adani stocks across the four reporting periods had acquired far more of other securities, it said.
The panel concurred that "there was no coherent pattern of abusive trading that has come to light".
Impact on Adani Stocks
The panel observed that there was hightened volatility in the Adani stocks subsequent to the allegations in the Hindenburg report, which shook the market confidence in the Adani Group. The panel said the Hindenburg report called for a probe and was 'inferential' based on publicly available information, it questioned the foundational premises on which Adani stocks were priced.
The committee said that the adverse impact was mitigated with measures from the Adani Group, which included paring down of group shares-backed group debt and raising of fresh capital from sale of promoter stake to private investor.
The market has repriced and reassessed the Adani shares and while they may not have returned to pre-Jan. 24, 2023, levels, they are stable at the newly re-priced level.
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