NSDL clarifies on freezing of 3 foreign funds backing Adani Group

The National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) has clarified that only the GDR accounts of Abula Investments, APMS Investment and Cresta Fund -- three foreign portfolio investors having stakes in Adani group companies -- have been frozen.

Following the clarification, shares of Adani group stocks jumped up to 4 per cent on Wednesday.

According to the latest update on the NSDL website, the GDR (Global Depository Receipts) accounts of Abula Investments, APMS Investment and Cresta Fund are among the 9,425 forzen accounts.

On June 14, shares of Adani Group companies nosedived up to 25 per cent after reports that accounts of three of six Mauritius-based funds that have invested most of their money in the group firms had been frozen by NSDL. The same day, NSDL had clarified that the freezing of the accounts of the Albula, Cresta, and APMS Fund was not related to Adani group but to a June 2016 case regarding GDR investments and that these three accounts were frozen then on Sebi orders.

Adani Group had said that the three accounts were not frozen and any reports suggesting the contrary were "blatantly erroneous and misleading". The confusion arose because the NSDL website continues to show the three FPIs on the list of 'frozen accounts' along with 9,444 other entities as on May 31. Now, NSDL has tagged the three accounts as 'GDR' in the frozen accounts list.

On July 19, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary told the Lok Sabha that Sebi and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence are probing the Adani Group companies for alleged non-compliance with the rules.

The minister had also said that the accounts of three of the six Mauritius-based funds -- Abula Investments, APMS Investment and Cresta Fund -- were frozen in 2016 over the issuance of GDRs by certain listed firms. No freeze was ordered for their holding in other firms, the minister had clarified.

On Wednesday, shares of Adani Transmission rallied 3.96 per cent, Adani Green Energy rose 3.94 per cent and Adani Power gained 2.11 per cent on the BSE.

Stock of Adani Total Gas jumped 0.76 per cent, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone went up 0.29 per cent and Adani Enterprises rose 0.24 per cent.