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A day ahead of the record date for de-merger of Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL)’s port, power and transmission businesses, the company's shares fell steeply by almost 83 per cent to an intraday low of Rs 106.35 on Wednesday on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
AEL saw its shares close at Rs 109.75 before hitting a low of Rs 106.35 from Rs 573.30 a share with a fall of 82.55 per cent on NSE. Shares of other Adani Group companies — Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) and Adani Power Limited (APL) fell by 3.35 per cent and 9.24 per cent, respectively.
While APSEZ fell to Rs 288 from Rs 311.80 per share before closing at Rs 297.25 a piece on Wednesday, APL fell from Rs 36.50 to Rs 29.60. APL closed at Rs 32.40 a share.
Following a sanction by the Gujarat High Court, AEL recently announced Thursday as the record date for the composite scheme of arrangement between AEL and its ports, power, transmission and mining companies — APSEZ, APL, ATL and AMPL. News of de-merger triggered the fall in share prices, sources said. A part of an earlier announced corporate restructuring, the de-merger will see APSEZ issuing 14,123 shares and APL 18,596 shares for every 10,000 AEL shares held.
V K Sharma, head — research, private broking, HDFC Securities, said, “The exchanges should have had a special session of Adani Enterprises because after the de-merger, the company's valuations will dip sharply. The company after the demerger will be a completely different animal.”
The Investors Grievances Forum (IGF), in a complaint to the Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi), alleged irregularities, stating the trading was done without adjustment of price or calling for a special session for proper price discovery.
“As a practice and considering the interest of investors, the shares of Adani Enterprises should have been allowed for trading at an adjusted price considering the hiving off its businesses into separate companies. Or there should have been special session for discovery of price of the shares of Adani Enterprises as was done in the past for the shares of Reliance Industries,” it stated in its complaint letter to the Sebi chairman.
Quoting sources having expertise in the valuation of shares, IGF alleged the fair value of shares of Adani Enterprises was not more than Rs 120 and, hence, trading in the shares of Adani Enterprises should not have been allowed at the maximum of Rs 120 a shares. It said the fall in share price as a “sudden shock to investors”, IGF also stated that special session should have been called for the purpose of determining fair value of shares through the price discovery mechanism.
AEL is said to have been waiting for a response from Sebi on the intra-day trading and its impact.
Calling for a time-bound investigation by Sebi, IGF further alleged the exchanges should have held special session for discovery of shares prices of Adani Enterprises or should have sought proper valuation of shares for adjusting the share prices. “IGF feels that the manner in which trading took place in Adani Enterprises, addition of scrips in futures & options, changes in Nifty components etc, the state of affairs at the exchanges needs to be examined so as to avoid the possibility of institutionalised scams orchestrated and executed by the unethical highly qualified professionals,” IGF stated.
