(Reuters) – Index provider MSCI said on Thursday it had determined certain Adani securities were not eligible after market participants raised concerns about the Indian conglomerate’s eligibility for some of its indexes. shall be designated as free float again.
Adani Securities’ changes related to its MSCI Global Investable Market Index will be announced later on Thursday as part of its February periodic review, it added.
“MSCI has determined that the characteristics of certain investors are of sufficient uncertainty that they should no longer be designated as free float based on our methodology,” it said in a statement .
It defines the free float of a security as the proportion of outstanding shares that are considered available for purchase by international investors in the public stock market.
Adani Group did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Billionaire Gautam Adani-led group has been in crisis since US short-seller Hindenburg Research published a report in January 24 report, accusing the group of improperly using offshore tax havens and manipulating stocks. It has also raised concerns about high debt levels and what it calls overvaluation.
In response to MSCI’s statement, Hindenburg founder Nathan Anderson tweeted: “We consider this a validation of our findings”.
Adani Group has denied the allegations, saying the short-seller’s narrative of stock manipulation is “baseless” and stems from ignorance of Indian law.
The report and its aftermath wiped $
Shares of some companies have since regained some ground.
Hindenburg said it was short Adani’s US-traded bonds and non-India-traded derivatives.
