New Delhi:

A day after the Adani Group rejected the OCCRP (Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project) report, Adani Group shares recovered from intraday lows and traded in the green. 

Shares of Adani Group’s flagship company Adani Enterprises witnessed a surge of over 1.5 per cent; the shares of Adani Ports also witnessed an uptick of over 1.5 per cent.  

Most of the heavyweight Adani Group stocks have recovered at least 50 per cent from the lows witnessed during the Hindenburg report fallout. 

In fact, the big bets for GQG in India (one the marquee global funds) are still on the Adani Group stocks. Since March 2023, after the Hindenburg saga, GQG has invested across Adani Group companies. 

Rejecting the OCCRP report, the Adani Group in a statement said “We categorically rejected these recycled allegations. These news reports appear to be yet another concerted bid by Soros-funded interests supported by a section of the foreign media to revive the meritless Hindenburg report.  

The Adani Group has also stated that “these attempts are aimed at generating profits by driving down the group’s stock prices and these short sellers are under investigation by various authorities”.

The statement further added, “as per the expert committee appointed by the Supreme Court there is no evidence of any breach of the minimum public shareholding requirements or manipulation of stock prices.”

Indian stock markets shrugged off the allegations raised by the OCCRP report alleging “opaque” trading by Adani Group. 

After the initial reaction on the day the report was released, there was no follow through selling in the Adani group stocks. The general perception in the market is that the allegations may not have a major impact on the group.

Adani Group termed OCCRP’s report as “rehashed” allegations that were reported and clarified earlier. 

Eight out of the 10 Adani Group stocks ended higher on Friday. The flagship Adani Enterprises Ltd. and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone were up 1.3% and 0.9%, respectively. Ambuja Cement Ltd., New Delhi Television Ltd., Adani Energy Solutions Ltd., Adani Green Energy Ltd., Adani Power Ltd and ACC Ltd. also ended higher.

 Adani Total Gas Ltd. and Adani Wilmar Ltd. ended 0.28% and 2% lower, respectively. 

Incidentally, OCCRP also came out with a note on Vedanta Ltd., which was also trading higher in the post-noon trading.

File picture of the Vedanta logo outside its headquarters in Mumbai
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Mining and oil giant Vedanta ran a covert lobbying campaign to weaken key environmental regulations during the pandemic, OCCRP alleged in a new report.

The not-for-profit organisation said the Indian government approved the changes without public consultation and implemented them using “illegal methods”.

Vedanta spokesperson did not immediately offer any comments.

“In one case, Vedanta led a push to ensure mining companies could produce up to 50% more without new environmental approvals,” it said.

Vedanta’s oil business, Cairn India, also successfully lobbied to have public hearings scrapped for exploratory drilling in oil blocks it won in government auctions. Since then, six of Cairn’s controversial oil projects in Rajasthan have been approved despite local opposition, it claimed.