Adani CFO Calls Sebi Notices Procedural: No Serious Issues

Ahmedabad, Jun 25 (PTI) Adani group CFO on Tuesday termed Sebi notices to its half a dozen listed companies as procedural and trivial and said the conglomerate was compliant with regulations.

Seven out of the 10 listed firms of the Adani group in May disclosed that they had received show cause notices from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for alleged violation of related party transactions and non-compliance with listing regulations.

"Some (notices) are trivial," Chief Financial Officer Jugeshinder Singh told reporters.

One of the notices pertains to share trading history, while another seeks to know the reasons for disclosing peer audit a couple of days later than the March 31 deadline, he said.

There was no wrongdoing, and the group was fully compliant with all regulations, he said. "If there was any violation, Sebi would have leaked (it to media or markets) by now," he said in a lighter vein.

"There are no serious issues... only procedural issues pertaining to listed companies, and we will deal with it," he said.

While the group's flagship Adani Enterprises Ltd, renewable energy firm Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) and city gas distributor Adani Total Gas Ltd had last month stated that Sebi sent notices to their parent or holding company controlled by the conglomerate's chairman Gautam Adani, ports company Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone, Adani Power, electricity transmission firm Adani Energy Solutions, and commodities firm Adani Wilmar had said they have received Sebi notices.

Making the disclosure as part of notes to their respective January-March quarter and 2023-24 financial results statements, all the firms, in almost identical statements, had said there is no material non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations and no material consequential effect.

However, auditors of the companies, except those for Adani Green Energy, Adani Total Gas Ltd and Adani Wilmar, issued a qualified opinion on the financial statements, implying that the outcome of the Sebi investigation may have a bearing on the financial statements in the future.

The conglomerate's cement companies ACC and Ambuja Cement said they have not received any notice from Sebi on the matter, and there was no open matter relating to them and any non-compliance with applicable regulations. Its media unit NDTV did not say anything about receiving Sebi notices.

The Sebi notices are part of a probe that followed US short-seller Hindenburg Research making damning allegations of corporate fraud and stock price manipulation against the Adani Group in January 2023. Though Adani vehemently denied all allegations, the report triggered a stock rout that wiped out about USD 150 billion of the group's market value to its lowest point.

Most of the group stocks have bounced back as the ports-to-energy conglomerate plotted a comeback strategy.

A show cause notice is not an indictment and seeks an explanation from entities as to why legal action should not be taken against them.

AGEL had termed the notices as "technical in nature" that have "no material consequential effects on the relevant financial statements, while AEL said, "there is no material consequential effect of above show cause notices to relevant financial statements and no material non-compliance of applicable laws and regulations".