Assessors including Crisil, the local arm of S&P Global Ratings, made a presentation to Sebi in recent days, said the people, who declined to be identified as the discussions were private.
Markets regulator Sebi met with ratings agencies to discussAdani Groupcompanies, according to people familiar with the matter, after a short-seller’s scathing report eroded more than $69 billion of the conglomerate’s stock market value.
Assessors including Crisil, the local arm of S&P Global Ratings, made a presentation to Sebi in recent days, said the people, who declined to be identified as the discussions were private.
The finances of companies backed by Gautam Adani, Asia‘s richest man, have come into focus after short seller Hindenburg Research accused the group of corporate malpractice. But there has been no suggestion it would struggle to make debt payments or that the meeting with ratings agencies is more than routine dialog.
Sebi asked about the maturity profile of Adani Group debts, its liquidity, the founder’s leverage and the overall rating process, some of the people said. The ratingsfirms did not express concern or say a revision was pending, they added.ASebicircular from 2017 instructed assessors to review a rating after a “significant decline” in a company’s stock or bond price, not linked to the general swings in the market.
Adani Group’s chief financial officer has termed Hindenburg‘s allegations “baseless and discredited. ” Even so, the companies’ shares and bonds have dropped.
