According to a court document reviewed by Reuters, India’s market regulator has requested a six-month extension to finalize its investigation into potential violations of securities market laws and regulatory disclosures by Gautam Adani’s Adani group.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) filed the request with the Supreme Court on Saturday, stating that complex transactions involving the conglomerate’s listed, unlisted, and offshore entities require extensive inquiry. At the moment, neither SEBI nor the Adani group have responded to a Reuters request for comment.
Following concerns about the governance practices of Gautam Adani’s Adani group raised by U.S.-based short-seller Hindenburg Research in a January report, the Supreme Court instructed the regulator to investigate. Adani, which primarily deals with infrastructure, dismissed the allegations made in Hindenburg’s report as “unsubstantiated speculations.” The court had given the regulator until May 2 to submit its report.
However, in its application, the regulator requested more time “to conduct a proper investigation and arrive at verified findings.” The investigation includes potential violations of related party transaction rules, public shareholding norms, and share price manipulation.
According to a court document viewed by Reuters, India’s market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), has requested a six-month extension to complete its probe into possible lapses in securities market laws and regulatory disclosures by the Adani group, a conglomerate owned by billionaire Gautam Adani.
The regulator filed its request with the Supreme Court on Saturday, citing complex transactions involving the group’s listed, unlisted, and offshore entities that require deeper investigations. The court had ordered the regulator to investigate the group’s governance practices after a report by US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research raised concerns in January. SEBI is investigating alleged breaches of related party transaction rules, public shareholding norms, and share price manipulation, but the application does not disclose details of the violations.
SEBI has received information from several Adani Group entities, but further independent verification and additional information from offshore regulators are needed since some of the transactions under scrutiny involve offshore entities, according to the court document.
