India court panel doesn’t see regulatory failure in Adani case

New Delhi: An expert committee, appointed by India’s top court, has said in its interim report that it doesn’t see any regulatory failure around Adani Group’s stock rallies in recent years as well as the rout since January when the conglomerate faced a short seller attack.

“At this stage, taking into account the explanations provided by SEBI, supported by empirical data, prima facie, it would not be possible for the committee to conclude that there has been a regulatory failure around the allegation of price manipulation,” the six-member panel said in the report submitted to the Supreme Court.

It said that the capital market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India, or SEBI, must complete its probe within a time-bound manner. The panel, based on data from the market regulator, saw “no evident pattern of manipulation” in the steep rise in stocks of companies owned by billionaire Gautam Adani that can be attributed to “any single entity or group of connected entities.”

Nine out of 10 Adani Group stocks traded higher on Friday in Mumbai after the panel’s report was made public. Flagship Adani Enterprises recovered the day’s losses and jumped as much as 3.8 per cent while Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone climbed 2.2 per cent.

The committee was set up on March 2 to look into any regulatory failures and suggest reforms for investor protection after Hindenburg Research’s bombshell allegations wiped out more than $100 billion off the Indian conglomerate’s market value.

The ports-to-power conglomerate, which has denied the shortseller’s claims, has been working on a comeback strategy that includes a $2.6 billion fundraising plan announced by two Adani companies earlier this month.