India’s market regulator warned against any incorrect or premature conclusion of its investigation into the Adani Group, in a filing to the country’s apex court on Monday.
A premature conclusion will be “legally untenable” and not “serve the ends of justice”, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) told the Supreme Court.
India’s Supreme Court is hearing an appeal from SEBI to give it an additional six months to complete the Adani probe. The court had given SEBI two months to complete the probe on March 2.
Also on AF: Probe Into Some Adani Offshore Deals for Disclosure Violations
The regulator said it had approached 11 overseas regulators for information on whether the Gautam Adani-led conglomerate violated any norms regarding its publicly available shares.
SEBI said it made the first such request as early as October 6, 2020.
“(An) analysis would have to be conducted on the documents received from various sources before conclusive findings can be arrived at,” the regulator said.
In following oral arguments the court said that it was inclined to give only a three-month extension. Oral arguments, however, do not necessarily match the final court order, which will likely be given on Monday.
The probe comes after US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research in January raised several governance concerns around Adani group. It alleged the ports-to-energy conglomerate had improperly used tax havens and manipulated its stock.
The Hindenburg report triggered a market rout in shares of the group’s listed companies, even as Adani denied all allegations.
Ahead of the final order, SEBI reiterated that the Adani group’s transactions highlighted by Hindenburg for violating Indian laws are highly complex and included many sub-transactions across numerous jurisdictions.
- Reuters, with additional editing by Vishakha Saxena
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