Deloitte resignation disintegrates $3.1 billion investor wealth in Adani stocks

Mumbai: Gautam Adani-led Adani group lost $3.1 billion in investor wealth on Monday after Deloitte Haskins and Sells LLP prematurely resigned as the statutory auditor of Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd.

The resignation, which came citing "differences of opinion", triggered a sell-off across most Adani Group stocks, wiping out a whopping ₹25,419 crore in market capitalization in just one trading session.

As of Monday, the Adani Group's total market capitalization stood at ₹10.44 trillion ($125.9 billion).

On Monday, shares of Adani Ports fell 1.74% to ₹787.15 apiece, Adani Enterprises fell 3.29% to ₹2,456, Adani Total Gas fell 2.07% to ₹635.60, Adani Transmission fell 2.81% to ₹808.30, Adani Green Energy fell 2.07% to ₹951.25, Adani Power fell 0.69% to ₹286.1, Adani Wilmar fell 1.91% to ₹375.8, Ambuja Cements fell 3.39% to ₹440.95, NDTV fell 1.59% to ₹219.55, and ACC fell 2.22% to ₹1910.35 apiece on the NSE.

Meanwhile, other Adani Group stocks also declined in the range of 2-5%.

The Adani group stocks came under pressure as the capital market regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) prepares to submit its investigative report to the Supreme Court on the allegations made by US-based Hindenburg Research against the conglomerate. On Monday, SEBI sought a 15-day extension from the Supreme Court to submit the report.

Deloitte Haskins and Sells LLP's resignation letter as Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd’s statutory auditor revealed that the US-headquartered Big Four auditor resigned prematurely primarily due to lack of clarity on transactions with certain parties alleged in the 24 January Hindenburg Research report, and because of the ₹1.75 trillion Gautam Adani-led company’s resistance to conducting an independent external evaluation.

As a “material weakness" identified as on 31 March, Deloitte said in the resignation letter, “The company (Adani Ports) did not have an appropriate internal control system in respect of conducting an external examination of allegations made on the company."

Deloitte said Adani Ports did not have adequate internal control systems to even examine veracity of allegations (made by Hindenburg) on related-party relationships, which could potentially result in possible adjustments or disclosures of related-party relationships, balances and transactions in the standalone financial statements.