NEW YORK, Feb 11 — Three Adani group companies have pledged shares for lenders to the Indian conglomerate’s flagship Adani Enterprises, which pulled a US$2.5 billion share sale during a recent market rout, the debt trustee firm said.
The trustee, a unit of India’s biggest state lender, State Bank of India SBI.NS, said it had pledges for shares worth 1 per cent of Adani Ports, up from 0.65 per cent, for 0.55 per cent of Adani Transmission, up from 0.44 per cent, and for 1.06 per cent of Adani Green, up from 0.68 per cent. Group companies controlled by billionaire Gautam Adani have lost more than US$100 billion in market value since January 24, when a US short seller issued a scathing report on the apples-to-airports conglomerate.
India’s market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, is investigating the Adani group’s links to some of the investors in the conglomerate’s aborted share sale, sources told Reuters yesterday.