new delhi,june 15
Adani Group companies plunged up to 25 per cent intra-day Monday following news reports that accounts of three foreign investor funds holding sizeable stake in the group’s companies had been frozen by National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL).The shares recovered partially after the group companies denied the news reports and informed stock exchanges that the demat accounts in which these foreign funds hold their shares were not frozen.An email sent by NSDL to the Adani Group following a query on the status of these funds, and seen by The Indian Express, noted that the status of the demat accounts of the three funds holding shares in Adani Group companies is “active” in the NSDL system.The reason why the NSDL website continues to reflect the name of these three foreign funds — Albula Investment Fund, Cresta Fund and APMS Investment Fund — in the list of frozen accounts as on May 31, 2021, was because these accounts were different from those which held shares of Adani Group companies, a source in NSDL, who did not wish to be identified, said.
The NSDL source said it was possible the freeze could either be on separate FPI accounts held by the three funds or on the depository receipt (DR) accounts held by them. The DR accounts are for the purpose of holding equity shares issued upon cancellation of Depository Receipts (GDR/ADR) held by them.In June 2016, capital market regulator SEBI had passed an order directing custodians to inform depositories to freeze beneficial accounts that received underlying shares on conversion cancellation of GDR issues by 51 companies. This list does not include any Adani Group company.
