360 One WAM Ltd (formerly IIFL Wealth Management Ltd), which figured in the latest Hindenburg report, said on Sunday IPE-Plus Fund 1 did not make any investments in the shares of the Adani group directly or indirectly throughout the fund’s tenure.
On Saturday, the US-based short seller had alleged that Sebi chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and husband Dhaval Buch had `stakes’ in obscure offshore funds that were allegedly used by Vinod Adani, the brother of Gautam Adani, to invest in Indian markets.
360 One WAM Ltd — an asset and wealth management firm — said IPE-Plus Fund 1 was launched in October 2013 and operated until October 2019.
``Throughout the fund's tenure, IPE-Plus Fund 1 made zero investments in any shares of the Adani group either directly or indirectly through any fund. At its peak, the fund's assets under management (AUM) reached approximately $48 million, with over 90 per cent of the fund consistently invested in bonds,’’ it said.
360 One WAM said no investor in IPE-Plus Fund 1 had any involvement in the fund's operations or investment decisions. Further, the holdings of Buch and her husband were less than 1.5 per cent of the total inflow into the fund.
According to the Hindenburg report, a Vinod Adani-company indirectly invested in IPE Plus Fund 1.
The founder and chief investment officer (CIO) of the fund was Anil Ahuja who was a director of Adani Enterprises where he served three terms spanning nine years ending in June 2017. Before that, he was a director of Adani Power.
Reacting to Hindenburg, the Adani group said that they are ``malicious, mischievous and manipulative selections of publicly available information to arrive at pre-determined conclusions for personal profiteering with wanton disregard for facts and the law’’.
On Ahuja, the conglomerate said that he was a nominee director of 3i investment fund in Adani Power (2007- 2008) and, later, a director of Adani Enterprises until 2017.
``The Adani group has absolutely no commercial relationship with the individuals or matters mentioned in this calculated deliberate effort to malign our standing…For a discredited short-seller under the scanner for several violations of Indian securities laws, Hindenburg's allegations are no more than red herrings thrown by a desperate entity with total contempt for Indian laws,’’ it noted.
Mutual funds body Amfi also reacted to the controversy on Sunday. Responding to the allegations made by Hindenburg, it said that they not only attempt to undermine Buch’s contribution to the Indian capital market but also the country’s economic progress.
