LIC loses Rs. 16,580 crore as Adani group stocks crash

India’s largest life insurer, the Life Insurance Corporation of India Ltd.(LIC) stocks plunged on Friday amid concerns about their exposure to the Adani Group. Shares of India’s Adani Group companies slid sharply on Wednesday morning after Hindenburg Research flagged concerns in a 24 January 2023 report.

LIC held stocks worth Rs. 81,262 crores in the ports-to-power conglomerate’s companies. LIC witnessed a loss of Rs. 18,645 crores in those holdings in the last two market sessions.

The shares price of LIC fell 3.5 percent on Friday and 5.3 percent over the last two days. While the Adani Group lost Rs. 3.37 lakh crore in market capitalization on Friday, 27 January 2023, over the last two trading sessions, it has lost Rs. 4.17 lakh crore in market capitalization. Gautam Adani, who occupied the third spot in the Forbes list of billionaires, slipped to 7th spot Friday.

Also read: The world’s third richest person ‘Gautam Adani’ slipped to seven

LIC shares in Adani Group

LIC is an investor in five Adani companies. The stocks of Adani Total Gas where the Government-owned LIC owns 5.96 percent fell 20 percent on Friday; the shares of Adani Enterprises (LIC holding 4.23 percent) fell 18.52 percent on the last day of trading and Adani Transmission (LIC holding 3.65 percent) fell 20 percent. Adani Ports (LIC holding 9.1 percent) fell 16.29 percent and Adani Green Energy (LIC holding 1.28 percent) too fell 20 percent on Friday, 27 January 2023.

There’s ‘no panic’

LIC’s investment signaled its vote of confidence in Asia’s richest man and his beleaguered group. The Government-owned LIC is plowing more money into Gautam Adani’s flagship unit, undeterred by a short seller’s fraud allegations that wiped out more than $50 billion of the conglomerate’s market value in two sessions.

According to a filing, State-controlled Life Insurance Corp. of India is spending about 3 billion rupees ($37 million) as an anchor investor in a $2.5 billion new share sale by Adani Enterprises Ltd.

Also read: Partly paid FPO: Adani Enterprises IPO opens