By Jayshree P Upadhyay
MUMBAI (Reuters) -India’s markets regulator has threatened two Mauritus-based funds with investments within the Adani Group that they may face penalties and cancellation of licences for not sharing shareholding particulars regardless of repeated requests over two years, in accordance with a doc reviewed by Reuters.
The Adani Group and its 13 offshore traders have been dealing with an investigation by the Securities and Change Board of India (SEBI) since Hindenburg Analysis in 2023 alleged improper use of tax havens by the group, triggering a inventory sell-off. The group has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, and its shares have since recovered.
Indian laws require that not less than 25% of the shares of listed corporations be held by public shareholders, however Hindenburg alleged the Adani Group breached these guidelines since some offshore funds with Adani firm holdings had been associated to the conglomerate.
The 2 Mauritius-based Elara funds – Elara India Alternatives Fund and Vespera Fund – had been requested since 2023 to supply “granular disclosures” of all their shareholders since that they had “concentrated positions” within the Adani Group, in accordance with a SEBI doc dated March 28, which was reviewed by Reuters.
“Up to now, this has not been supplied by these FPIs (international portfolio traders) to SEBI … They’ve additionally not supplied any causes,” the doc mentioned, including that such delays had “impeded the investigation into the Adani Group’s compliance with minimal public shareholding norms.”
India’s Elara Capital and SEBI didn’t reply to Reuters queries. The Adani Group additionally didn’t reply.
The SEBI doc famous that Elara funds didn’t make disclosures about their acquisitions of sure Adani shares exceeding 5% – as was required by Indian laws. It didn’t specify the precise shareholding in query.
Despite the fact that the funds are Mauritius based mostly, they’re registered with SEBI as FPIs, bringing them beneath compliance norms and scrutiny of the Indian regulator.
The 2 funds have utilized to SEBI to settle the matter with out admitting guilt and by paying a financial effective, mentioned two sources with direct data of the matter, who declined to be named because the investigation is confidential.
It was not clear what penalties might they face ultimately.
In November, U.S. authorities indicted group chairman Gautam Adani and another executives, alleging they paid bribes to safe Indian energy provide contracts and misled U.S. traders throughout fund elevating. Adani denies wrongdoing, and says the allegations are baseless.
