LIC loses over ₹8,700 crore in seven Adani shares in a day on Gautam Adani’s civil indictment news. Here’s how

Adani Group Stocks: Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the country’s largest domestic institutional investor, saw its holdings in seven Adani stocks drop by nearly ₹9,000 crore in a single trading session on Thursday, November 21, following a sharp decline in group shares.

The shares of the Gautam Adani-led conglomerate plummeted by up to 23% in intra-day trade after US prosecutors charged the billionaire founder in a $250 million bribery case. 

As per the shareholding pattern as of September 2024 end, LIC held stakes in seven Adani companies - Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, Adani Green Energy, Adani Energy Solutions, Adani Total Gas, ACC and Ambuja Cements. The insurance behemoth saw a ₹8,720 crore decline in the value of its holdings in these companies, according to data from Capital Market.

LIC experienced the largest decline in the value of its holding in Adani Ports, which fell by ₹2,960.23 crore, followed by ₹2,995.37 crore loss in Adani Enterprises. The value of LIC’s stake in Ambuja Cement dropped by ₹822.34 crore.

Additionally, LIC’s holding in Adani Total Gas saw a decline of ₹462.80 crore, while in Adani Energy Solutions, it dropped by ₹716.50 crore, in Adani Green Energy by ₹571.64 crore, and in ACC by ₹191.09 crore.

Bribery Charges Against Adani

According to a Reuters report, U.S. authorities said Adani and seven other defendants, including his nephew Sagar Adani, agreed to pay about $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain contracts expected to yield $2 billion of profit over 20 years and develop India's largest solar power plant project.

“A five-count criminal indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging Gautam S. Adani, Sagar R. Adani and Vneet S. Jaain, executives of an Indian renewable-energy company (the Indian Energy Company), with conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities fraud for their roles in a multi-billion-dollar scheme to obtain funds from U.S. investors and global financial institutions on the basis of false and misleading statements,” stated US Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York.

Adani Stocks In Freefall

Following these allegations, flagship Adani group firm Adani Enterprises closed 23.44 per cent lower while Adani Ports settled 13.23 per cent down. Adani Energy Solutions closed locked in the 20 per cent lower circuit. 

Adani Green Energy lost 19 per cent, while Adani Total Gas, Adani Power and Adani Wilmar shed 10 per cent each. Ambuja Cement, ACC and Sanghi Industries shed between 6-13 per cent while NDTV closed flat with a positive bias on the NSE.

Overall, Adani Group companies witnessed an m-cap erosion of ₹2.24 lakh crore today. 

The indictment comes almost two years after a bombshell report by the US short-seller Hindenburg Research accused Adani of using tax havens improperly and engaging in stock manipulation, claims that the conglomerate has denied.

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