‘India’s image isn’t suffering’: FM Sitharaman on withdrawal of Adani Enterprises FPO

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said that the withdrawal of Adani Enterprises' Follow-on Public Offer had no impact on the country's macroeconomic fundamentals and reputation. On Wednesday, Adani Enterprises Ltd. decided to withdraw its FPO worth Rs 20,000 crore, after it was fully subscribed on January 31. “How many times have FPOs not withdrawn from this country and how many times has the image of India been suffering because of that and how many times have FPOs not come back,” she asked. She said regulators, like SEBI, are monitoring the developments in the Adani group and they are independent to function.
 

Earlier this week, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asked banks and Life Insurance Corporation to declare their exposures to the Adani group. Most banks, like SBI, Bank of Baroda, and LIC, issued their statements clarifying their stand.“The market has functioned in prime condition. SEBI has worked on it well," Sitharaman said at a press conference in Mumbai.The Adani group is facing one of its worst crises in recent years after US-based short-seller Hindenberg Research released a report accusing the group of lapses in its accounting and valuation. On Friday, Sitharaman affirmed that LIC and SBI were not “over-exposed” to Adani Group shares and that “investors’ confidence” would endure in the market.She said that India remained "an absolutely well governed" country and a "very well regulated financial market."The Union ministry of Corporate Affairs has also initiated a preliminary review of Adani Group's financial statements and other regulatory submissions made over the years, two senior government officials told Reuters on Friday. Since January 24, Adani Group companies have lost around Rs 9 lakh crore m-cap in the last seven trading sessions till February 3.