Investing banking firm Citigroup announced that it has stopped accepting Adani Group securities as collateral for giving out margin loans, as per a Bloomberg report. This development comes a day after Credit Suisse’s lending arm assigned zero lending value to bonds issued by Adani companies, signalling a trend in global lending firms maintaining their distance from Adani Group securities.
This adds to the woes of the Gautam Adani-backed conglomerate that is currently under a selling spree on the Indian bourses for six consecutive trading sessions. The downfall of the ports-to-power group started after American short-seller Hindenburg came out with multiple allegations against Adani Group on 24 January.
The allegations, which include fraud, market manipulation and dubious offshore activities, have rocked the conglomerate’s listed companies, with all of them falling for over a week. The report was dismissed by Adani Group as a compilation of misinformation and an attempt to sabotage the FPO plans of its flagship firm.
The Adani Enterprises FPO was called off on Wednesday despite securing full subscription earlier in the week. Although the share sale did not attract much retail participation, non-institutional investors helped the FPO sail through. Now, with a called off FPO and global lending firms expressing their lack of trust in Adani securities, it remains to be seen how the erstwhile world's third person and his group plan to overcome the Hindenburg effect.
