EPFO Continues to Invest in 2 Adani Stocks Despite Market Crash, says Report

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), which manages the savings of 27.73 crore formal sector employees, continued to invest in Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports and SEZ (APSEZ) despite the Adani Group’s market bloodbath following the publication of the Hindenburg Research report.

As of March 24, the Adani Enterprises stock was down more than 49% from the price level at which it was included in the NSE Nifty 50 and was 58.5% below its 52-week high level of Rs 4,190 in December 2022.

The APSEZ stock is down around 19% since the beginning of 2022-23 and more than 35% below its 52-week high of RS 987.8 recorded in September 2022.

The EPFO, which invests 15% of its corpus into exchange traded funds (ETFs) linked to the NSE Nifty 50 and the BSE Sensex, will continue to invest in the two Adani companies till, at least, September, according to a report by The Hindu.

The EPFO, which added Adani Enterprises in the Nifty 50 last September, has retained the stock for another six months starting March 30. APSEZ, part of the Nifty 50 since September 2015, has also been retained for the next six months.

The EPFO, which had invested Rs 1.57 lakh crore in ETFs as of March 2022, invested another Rs 38,000 crore in them during 2022-23 out of the fresh contributions amounting to an estimated Rs 2.54 lakh crore remitted into accounts of EPF members, according to The Hindu.

An EPFO official told The Hindu its exposure to Adani Enterprises is much less compared to APSEZ since it started investing in the stock only six months ago. However, the EPFO’s investment can hit its returns and impact the annual EPF rate paid to members considering the massive decline in Adani stocks.

Central Provident Fund commissioner Neelam Shami Rao did not respond to a questionnaire sent by The Hindu on March 23 asking about the EPFO’s exposure to the Adani group stocks.

EPFO trustees said that they are unaware of its exposure to Adani stocks but the issue may figure in a two-day meet of its Board chaired by Union labour and employment minister Bhupender Yadav on Monday.

Why is Retirement Fund Being Invested in Adani Firms: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi why there was no investigation into the investment of people's retirement fund in the Adani group even after various allegations were levelled against the firm, reports PTI.

Taking to Twitter, Gandhi said, "LIC's capital, to Adani! SBI's capital, to Adani! EPFO's capital too, to Adani! Why is public's retirement money being invested in Adani's companies even after 'Modani' exposed?".

"Mr prime minister, no investigation, no answer! Why so much of fear," he asked in a tweet in Hindi.