Adani Group Took Steps To Build Investor Confidence: Supreme Court Panel

The Adani Group has taken necessary steps to comfort retail investors after the volatility caused by Hindenburg Research's report, according to the report of the Supreme Court-appointed expert committee.

The intense adverse impact on Adani stock prices stood mitigated with measures such as the Adani Group promoters paring down the debts raised, secured by encumbrances on their shareholding, and infusion of fresh investment into Adani stocks by buying shares worth nearly $2 billion by a private equity investor from the promoters of the Adani Group, the report said.

The market has repriced and reassessed the Adani stocks, and while they may not have returned to the pre-January 24 levels, they are stable at the newly repriced level, the report said.

Data given by the capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) suggests that after the volatile effect on the Adani Group stocks, participation by retail investors in ownership of these accounts has in fact gone up, the report said.

As per the report, SEBI has submitted that the events linked to Adani Group companies did not have any significant impact at the systematic level.

While the shares of the group have seen significant fall in prices due to selling pressure and may have dominated media attention, the markets remained largely stable and resilient, the report said.

Empirical data that shows that retail investors' exposure to the Adani stocks has increased points to the fact that investors and the market to make their own informed decisions and a fall in the price led to more capital, including from retail investors, coming into ownership of these stocks at a re-priced level.

The members of the Supreme Court-appointed expert group who looked into India's regulatory mechanism to protect investors are retired Supreme Court judge Justice AM Sapre, retired Bombay High Court judge Justice JP Devadhar, former State Bank of India Chairman OP Bhatt, former ICICI Bank chief KV Kamath, Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani and securities and regulatory expert Somasekhar Sundaresan.