MUMBAI: Billionaire Gautam Adani, several members of his family and some companies founded by him settled a key case involving shareholding rules with India’s market regulator, nearly six years after a probe into the conglomerate’s ownership structure began.
Adani Energy Solutions Ltd, Adani Power Ltd, Adani Enterprises Ltd and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd, along with their 14 directors, paid 14.8 million rupees (US$154,100) to resolve the case without admitting or denying the findings of the probe, the regulator said in an order on Monday.
The investigation was cited by former short-seller Hindenburg Research in a damaging report in January 2023 that alleged corporate malpractice at the Adani Group.
The probe began in 2020 over investments by global portfolio investors that the regulator suspected may have been structured to bypass Indian public shareholding rules, which bar founders from holding more than 75% of a listed company.
The settlement helped remove one of the longest-running regulatory overhangs on the ports-to-power conglomerate.
Hindenburg and other market participants had for years alleged that the founders held stakes in some group firms above levels allowed under Indian rules, helping fuel a sharp rally in their shares between 2013 and 2022.
The resolution comes just a week after other Adani Group companies settled probes stemming from the US short-seller’s accusations, further reducing the number of outstanding cases against the group.
In a separate 81-page final order related to the same probe, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) member Kamlesh C Varshney said there was no evidence that Vinod Adani, brother of Gautam, controlled foreign companies that invested in group firms and were at the centre of allegations of breaching minimum ownership rules.
The order also cleared 12 entities, including several overseas firms, of violating local shareholding rules or engaging in alleged unfair trading.
Still, Sebi did impose a fine of two million rupees each on Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli, a UAE-based businessman, and Chang Chung-Ling, a Taiwanese businessman with longstanding corporate links to the Adani group, for failing to submit “correct and complete information”.
Both were among the key individuals examined in the probe into the ownership of offshore funds that held shares in Adani companies.
The latest resolution extends Adani’s efforts this year to settle several historical legal and regulatory cases.
In May, Adani Enterprises reached a US$275mil settlement with the US Treasury Department over apparent sanctions violations related to liquefied petroleum gas shipments linked to Iran.
The US Justice Department dropped criminal charges against Adani and his nephew related to solar energy contracts in India.
The easing of those cases have helped bring fresh foreign capital into the group as it seeks to accelerate investments across data centres, airports and other infrastructure projects. — Bloomberg
