Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) on Monday said it has an exposure of Rs 36,474.78 crore to Adani group’s debt and equity, and the amount is less than one per cent of the national insurer’s total investments.
LIC’s total assets under management stood at over Rs 41.66 lakh crore as of September 2022.
The disclosure by the insurer, which is also the country’s largest domestic institutional investor, comes amid Adani group stocks taking a beating on the bourses after the short-selling specialist firm Hindenburg Research in a report made a litany of allegations, including fraudulent transactions and share price manipulation, at the Gautam Adani-led group. The allegations have been rejected by the group.
“Our total holding in the Adani group companies under equity and debt a on date is Rs 36,474.78 crore. This was Rs 35,917.31 crore as of December 31, 2022. Total purchase value of these equities of the group companies, bought over the past many years, is Rs 30,127 crore and the market value for the same at close of market hours on January 27, 2023 was Rs 56,142 crore,” LIC said in a tweet.
Adani group has 10 listed companies.However, the insurer did not disclose about its exposure on an individual company basis.
On other hand Punjab National Bank (PNB) which has about Rs 7,000 crore exposure in Adani Group entities on Monday said it is keeping a close watch on the situation developing following the damning disclosures by a US short seller.
The state-owned bank has total exposure of about Rs 7,000 crore. Out of that Rs 2,500 crore is related to the airport business.
“Whatever exposure we are having is backed by cash flow. Total exposure include investment of Rs 42 crore and remaining credit,” PNB managing director Atul Kumar Goel said while announcing quarterly numbers.
As on date there is no worry as the bank has not too much exposure keeping the size of the lender, he said, “we are keeping a close watch on development (on Adani front) in times to come.”
Adani group’s listed companies have lost over USD 70 billion since the January 24 report of the New York firm that flagged high debt levels at the ports-to-energy conglomerate and the alleged use of offshore entities in tax havens.
Hindenburg Research had alleged that the ports-to-energy-to-cement conglomerate had engaged in “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud” for decades.
