Congress Asks 3 Questions on Alleged Efforts To 'Bailout' Adani Enterprises' FPO
Moneylife Digital Team 20 February 2023
In the thirteenth instalment of questions under the series, 'Hum Adani Ke Hai Kaun' (HAHK), the Congress party has asked three questions to prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi related to the alleged efforts to bailout Adani Enterprises Ltd's follow-on public offer (FPO). On 2 February 2023, Adani Enterprises called off its Rs20,000 crore FPO, citing the unprecedented situation and the current market volatility. 
 
Jairam Ramesh, member of Parliament (MP) and general secretary for communication of Congress, says, "(these) questions relate to how senior members of the Union Cabinet tried to bail out the Adani Enterprises FPO using public money and by calling in favours."
 
Here are the three questions asked by Congress to the PM...
 
(1)   Is it true that a high-profile Union minister with longstanding commercial links made personal calls to five-six of the most well-known businesspersons on behalf of Gautam Adani and asked them to invest their personal funds in the FPO to save Gautambhai from embarrassment? Does this not represent a conflict of interest worth investigating? Did this Union minister act on instructions from you?
 
(2)   Did the family offices that were pressurised to bail out the Adani FPO given assurances that this was only to save Gautam Adani's reputation and that the FPO would be subsequently cancelled and the money returned to the investors? Is it not a violation of Indian securities regulations to hide this relevant information from most investors and only to share it with a select few? Is it ethical to dupe FPO investors in this way?
 
(3)   Among the anchor investors in the Adani Enterprises FPO were the Life Insurance Corporation of India (that bid Rs299 crore), State Bank of India Employees' Pension Fund (bid Rs99 crore) and SBI Life Insurance Company (bid Rs125 crore). These publicly-owned institutions participated in the FPO, despite the fact that the market price had dropped far below the issue price and that both LIC and SBI already owned large chunks of Adani group equity. Were instructions issued to LIC and SBI to deploy the savings of crores of Indians to once again bail out the Adani Group?
 
Read about the previous questions here… 
 
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