Life Insurance Corporation of India’s (LIC) holdings value in seven key listed Adani Group Companies (exclusion of ACC Ltd and Ambuja Cements) has fallen to INR 26,862 crore – down to 11 percent from the purchase value of INR 30,127 crore as of Thursday. LIC held 9.14 percent in Adani Ports, 5.96 percent in Adani Total Gas, 4.23 percent in Adani Enterprises, 3.65 percent Adani Transmission, and 1.28 percent in Adani Green Energy, in the quarter-ending December 2022.

“LIC’s total holding under equity and debt is Rs 35,917.31 crore as on December 31, 2022, under the Adani group of companies. The total purchase value of equity purchased over the last many years under all the Adani group companies is Rs 30,127 crores and the market value for the same as at close of market hours on January 27th, 2023 was Rs 56,142 crores. The total amount invested under Adani Group amounts to Rs 36,474.78 crores as of January 30, 2023,” LIC had said in a press release in January.

“The total Assets Under Management by LIC are over Rs 41.66 lakh crore as of September 30, 2022. Therefore, LIC’s exposure in the Adani group, as of January 31, 2023, is 0.975% of LIC’s Total AUM at book value,” LIC added. LIC has increased its shareholding in four of the seven listed Adani Group companies in the previous nine quarters. From September 2020 to December 2022, LIC stake in flagship Adani Enterprises surged from less than 1% to 4.23%, in Adani Total Gas, it rose to 5.96% from less than 1%, in Adani Transmission, to 3.65% from 2.42%, and in Adani Green Energy, to 1.28% from less than 1%. The only exceptions are Adani Ports, where LIC holding declined marginally from 9.61% till September 2022 to 9.14% in December 2022; and two other companies Adani Power and Adani Wilmar, in which the stake is under 1%. 

The US based short-seller Hindenburg Research accused Adani family of money laundering and stock manipulation which pushed the Adani Group’s m-cap to fall over 60%. Gautam Adani-led group’s market capitalisation has tumbled to Rs 7.15 lakh crore (including ACC Ltd and Ambuja Cements) at the time of writing this report, as compared to Rs 19.18 lakh crore on January 24, with the loss totalling Rs 12.02 lakh crore. Some of the stocks, such as Adani Green Energy, Adani Total Gas and Adani Transmission have plunged over 70% while the flagship Adani Enterprises shares have lost over 60%. Adani Power has crashed by 46% and Adani Ports, Adani Wilmar, ACC and Ambuja Cements have fallen over 25%. On Friday, the group’s four stocks, Adani Power, Adani Transmission, Adani Green Energy and Adani Total Gas were locked in the lower circuit, falling 5% while Adani Enterprises shares fell 7.68% to Rs 1277.40.