Punjab National Bank (PNB), the country’s second-largest public sector bank, said that it was not unduly worried over its ₹7,000-crore exposure to the Adani Group, whose listed shares have taken a beating on allegations made in a report by the US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research. The claims in the report sparked a rout in Adani stocks.

Read also: LIC reviews Adani response to short seller's allegation

“We have nothing to worry as our exposure is small at ₹ 7,000 crore. This is spread across nearly eight entities of the group and most of the funding is cash flow based and only project financing”, Atul Kumar Goel, Managing Director & CEO, PNB said when asked about the bank’s exposure to Adani Group, whose business interests range from ports, airports, mining and power to media and cement.

Read more: Adani group counters questions raised by Hindenburg Research

At the same time, Goel also said that the bank was keeping a close watch on the emerging situation in the ongoing tussle between Adani Group and Hindenberg Research. Adani Group has already attacked the report, calling it malicious misrepresentation of facts, adding that the US short-seller deliberately used only part of the Group’s disclosures to make misleading points.

Also read: MFs hold investment of ₹26,388 crore in Adani Group shares

Of the overall exposure of ₹7,000 crore, as much as ₹6,300 crore is fund-based and the rest being non-fund based. He also clarified that PNB has not made any financing to Adani Group on “any pledge of shares”.

Asked as to how much of this ₹7,000 crore went in as investments into shares of Adani Group, Goel said that bank had investments of about ₹43 crore and the rest was mostly towards debt for various projects. 

Shares of most Adani Group companies slumped on Monday despite the lengthy weekend rebuttal given by the conglomerate to the allegations of fraud by the report of short seller Hindenburg Research.

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