Opal Investment Private Limited, the largest public investor in Adani Power Limited, is a “single person company” that was established in the United Arab Emirates in 2019, The Indian Express reported on Wednesday.
Opal Investment Private Limited is also one of the 13 overseas funds of the Adani Group under probe by the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
In March, the Supreme Court had asked the markets regulator to conduct an inquiry after American firm Hindenburg Research, in a report on January 24, alleged that the Adani Group was pulling off the “largest con in corporate history”.
Corporate records accessed by The Indian Express show Zenith Commodities General Trading LLC as the controlling shareholder in Opal Investment Private Limited. It is owned by Adel Hassan Ahmed Alali of the UAE.
In July 2020, Adel also became a director of Opal Investments (Mauritius), whose address is recorded as the same as that of Trustlink International, a corporate service provider.
According to the newspaper, the “one-man setup in Dubai” owns and controls Opal’s investment in Adani Power shares worth Rs 8,000 crore at current market value.
In its report, Hindenburg Research had pointed out that Opal Investment had no website, no employees on LinkedIn and no marketing materials or records of its principals presented at any investment conferences.
“Opal’s investment portfolio has zero diversification,” the American firm had said. “It consists solely of Adani Power shares...”
It had also pointed out that Opal Investment had be formed in Mauritius on the exact same day, in the exact same jurisdiction, by the same registered agent – Trustlink International – as Krunal Trade and Investment Private Limited, an entity formed and controlled by Vinod Adani, the brother of the conglomerate’s chairperson Gautam Adani.
On Tuesday, The Indian Express reported that records accessed by it showed that Opal Investment has dropped Trustlink International as its corporate agent and built a website after the Mauritius fund was linked to the Adani Group in the Hindenburg report.
The records further showed that Opal Investment on June 14 hired a new management company – LTS Management Services Limited – that became the fund’s secretary and also supplied two nominee directors.
At the same time, the company also changed its registered address from Trustlink House to LTS Management’s office address. It had also registered a website on May 26.
Earlier, while responding to the allegations raised in the Hindenburg report, the Gautam Adani-led conglomerate had described Opal Investment as one of the public shareholders in the listed companies in the Adani portfolio.
“Innuendoes that they are in any manner related parties of the promoters are incorrect,” the Adani Group had said. “A listed entity does not have control over who buys/sells/owns the publicly traded shares or how much volume is traded, or the source of funds for such public shareholders nor is it required to 48 have such information for its public shareholders under laws of India. Hence we cannot comment on trading pattern or behavior of public shareholders.”
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