RBI seeks details of banks’ exposure to Adani Group

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has sought details about lenders’ exposures to the Adani Group, banking sources said, a day after the conglomerate withdrew the Rs 20,000-crore follow on public offer (FPO) of its flagship firm Adani Enterprises amid the steep fall in its stock prices. On Wednesday, Swiss lender Credit Suisse stopped accepting bonds by Adani group companies as collaterals for margin lending. The going has been tough for the diversified conglomerate over the past week ever since US-based short seller Hindenburg Research levelled a slew of allegations about the group’s operations, calling it the biggest corporate con ever. The Ahmedabad-headquartered group has denied all the allegations but failed to convince analysts and investors. The RBI gets access to banks’ large corporate borrowers on a regular basis as part of the central repository of information on large credits (CRILC) data base, the banking sources said. Many a time bank lending happens against pledged securities and a massive fall in the price of the equity shares of the Adani group’s 10 listed entities could have accordingly lowered the value of the pledged securities. There has been selling pressure in banks’ stocks since the Hindenberg Research’s report released on January 24 as investors are concerned about the impact of the crisis on banks’ books.