‘Rs 3200 cr loss for LIC so far…’: Mahua Moitra targets Centre again as Adani shares slip
LIC investment in Adani Group: TMC MP Mahua Moitra has once again targeted the Centre over state-run insurance giant LIC’s investment in the Hindenburg-hit Adani Group. LIC has, over the years, invested Rs 36,474.78 crore in seven Adani stocks. Till last month, its investment was in profit. But as the shares of Adani Group companies crashed due to a damaging report by US-based short-seller Hindenburg, LIC’s investment has now turned negative.
On Friday, Moitra shared a report on LIC’s investment and asked the insurance regulator IRDAI why it was not probing the insurer’s transactions in Adani. “Rs 3200 cr loss in Adani shares for @LICIndiaForever so far. @nsitharaman #IRDAI what pressure is there to support Adani at cost of Indian public? We need answers.”
Ever since the Hindenburg report came out, Moitra has been attacking the central government and regulators suggesting they all tweaked rules to favour Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani, who is considered close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She has been demanding an investigation by market regulator Sebi to probe Hindenburg’s allegations that Adani indulged in stock manipulation and fraud. Moitra also wants agencies to probe on why the government-owned insurance giant was allowed to invest public money in Adani.
Earlier this month, Tuhin Kant Pandey, Secretary, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management, said that LIC’s investment in Adani Group companies was within the insurance regulator and its risk management framework. He also said that the investments of the insurance giant, including in equities, were made following the company’s ‘risk management framework’ and that these investments go into the government securities, which are managed under ‘concentration risk portfolio benchmarks’.
Business Today on February 23 reported that LIC had witnessed an enormous notional loss of Rs 49,728 crore on its investments in the Adani Group stocks.
The combined market value of the insurance major’s investments in seven Adani stocks – Adani Enterprises, Adani Green Energy, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, Adani Total Gas, Adani Transmission, Ambuja Cements and ACC – plunged to Rs 33,242 crore as on February 23 from Rs 82,970 crore as on December 31, 2022.
