By Jayshree P Upadhyay
Mumbai (Reuters) -India's Markets Regulator has claimed that Pranav Adani, director of various Adani Group Companies and the cousin of the founder of the billionaire, shared price -sensitive information and violating regulations aimed at preventing trade with prior knowledge, according to a document by Reuters.
Adani, the cousin of Gautam Adani, received a notification last year from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) who claimed that he shared information about the acquisition of Adani Green's 2021 Acquisition of Softbank-supported SB Energy Holdings before the deal was announced, according to one source and the source.
The case has not been reported before.
In an e-mailed reaction sent to Reuters, Pranav Adani said that he wanted to arrange the charges “to put an end to the case, without admission or denial of the allegations” and that “he has not violated the securities law”.
Settlement conditions were discussed, said that the source with direct knowledge of the case, which refused to be called the case, is confidential.
The research is the latest challenge for the Adani Group. Last year, the US authorities sued Gautam Adani and two Adani Green leaders for alleged paying bribes to protect Indian power supply contracts and to mislead American investors. The group has denied the charges and called “unfounded”.
Pranav Adani “Communicated UPSI (non-published price-sensitive information) with regard to the SB Energy Acquisition” to his brother-in-law Kunal Shah and Shall standards with regard to Rules for Insider Trade Rules in 2021, said the SEBI document, which were assessed in the study.
Kunal Shah and Nupal Shah, his brother, then exchanged in shares of Adani Green and made “unlawfully obtained profit” of 9 million rupees ($ 108,000), the document added.
The Shah brothers said in a statement from their law firm that the transactions were not carried out with the “knowledge of non -published price -sensitive information nor with any rogue intention.”
“The information in question was already generally available in the public domain,” said the statement.
Sebi did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
The acquisition of SB Energy from Adani Green on 17 May 2021 with a business value of $ 3.5 billion is the largest acquisition in the renewable energy sector so far in India.
Pranav Adani became aware of the approaching acquisition two days before 16 May 2021, when the deal was completed, Sebi said.
Sebi had proposed that Kunal and Nupal Shah also settle, but the brothers chose to dispute the allegations when they found the conditions too heavy, the source added.
