No control over FPI disclosures, narrative was 'twisted': Gautam Adani

Breaking his silence on the foreign portfolio investment (FPI) controversy, Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani group, on Monday said the issue caused unexpected fluctuations in the group’s share prices, which affected small investors, even though the companies did not have any regulatory powers to control the FPIs’ investments or disclosures.

Addressing the annual general meeting, Adani drew attention to the group’s philosophy on investments. “We are inter-generational holders of equity. We focus on creating long-term sustainable value for our partners, our minority investors and ourselves,” Adani said.

Adani said a section of the media indulged in “reckless” reporting on administrative actions of regulators, which resulted in a sharp fall in share prices. “This caused unexpected fluctuations in the market prices of Adani stocks. Unfortunately, some of our small investors were affected by this twisted narrative in which some commentators and journalists seemed to imply that companies have regulatory powers over their shareholders and that companies can compel disclosure,” Adani said.

He was referring to reports that investments by a few Mauritius-based FPIs in Adani stocks was frozen by the National Securities Depository (NSDL) for regulatory reasons. This resulted in a sharp fall in Adani group stocks initially, but the stocks have recovered after NSDL denied any freeze.

“In the long term, such diversions will not impact us. We have always been a confident organisation that has taken on challenges that very few would dare or imagine. Every challenge thrown at us only makes us stronger and better prepared,” Adani said while drawing attention to the $100-billion market capitalisation the group companies touched in the first two weeks of April. The group market cap was $95.3 billion on Monday.

Adani said for FY21, consolidated Ebitda for the group’s listed portfolio was over Rs 32,000 crore — registering a YoY growth of 22 per cent. “All Adani stocks generated returns over 100 per cent — and our businesses ensured that we returned close to Rs 9,500 crore to our shareholders. This is a 166 per cent YoY increase in profit after tax,” he said.

He added that no matter which business the group is involved in —  seaports, airports, logistics, natural resources, thermal and renewable power generation, transmission, data centres, defence, agri and food, real estate, city gas utilities, among others — he believes all of them are individually capable of delivering high growth. 

“But, even more importantly, every one of them has adjacencies within themselves as well as new sectors we can move into,” Adani said.