Adani Group Stocks: Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the country’s largest domestic institutional investor, saw its holdings in seven Adani stocks drop by nearly ₹12,000 crore following a sharp decline in group shares.

The shares of the Gautam Adani-led conglomerate plummeted by up to 20% after US prosecutors charged the billionaire founder in a $250 million bribery case.

According to a Reuters report, U.S. authorities said Adani and seven other defendants, including his nephew Sagar Adani, agreed to pay about $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain contracts expected to yield $2 billion of profit over 20 years and develop India’s largest solar power plant project.

“A five-count criminal indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging Gautam S. Adani, Sagar R. Adani and Vneet S. Jaain, executives of an Indian renewable-energy company (the Indian Energy Company), with conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities fraud for their roles in a multi-billion-dollar scheme to obtain funds from U.S. investors and global financial institutions on the basis of false and misleading statements,” stated US Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York.

The Fallout

As per the shareholding pattern as of September 2024 end, LIC held stakes in seven Adani companies – Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, Adani Green Energy, Adani Energy Solutions, Adani Total Gas, ACC and Ambuja Cements. The insurance behemoth saw a ₹11,728 crore decline in the value of its holdings in these companies.

Adani Energy Solutions shares were locked in the 20 per cent lower circuit limit on Thursday at ₹697.70 apiece. Meanwhile, Nifty50 constituents Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports were trading 19 per cent and 15 per cent lower respectively, around 12.40 pm.

Adani Green Energy, Adani Total Gas, ACC and Ambuja Cement were down between 7 per cent and 18 per cent at the time of writing the report.

Overall, Adani Group companies witnessed an m-cap erosion of ₹2 lakh crore.

Disclaimer: The views and recommendations above are those of individual analysts or broking companies, not Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.