Mumbai: India’s capital markets regulator has rejected settlement applications by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) that held significant stakes in listed Adani Group companies, people familiar with the matter said. This was because the FPIs’ terms failed to align with those proposed by Sebi, they said.
The regulator communicated its decision to the FPIs’ representatives last week, the people said, reviving a case that dates back to October 2020, when Sebi’s surveillance systems first flagged the unusual concentration of their holdings. Sebi’s investigation had flagged 13 FPIs. They subsequently sought to settle the case.
“The terms were not in line with the settlement terms suggested by Sebi. Therefore, Sebi rejected the application,” the regulator said in its communication to the FPIs. “This recommendation (rejection of the application) of HPAC (high-powered advisory committee on settlement orders) was accepted by the panel of whole-time members in terms of regulation 15(1) of the Settlement Regulations, 2018.”
At the centre of the standoff, according to one of the people, was the reluctance of some FPIs to fully disclose information Sebi considered essential to any settlement. “You have to come clean if you want to settle a case. Some FPIs were unwilling to provide certain details to Sebi, which was a precondition for settlement,” the person said. “Entities must first agree to the non-monetary terms.”
Agencies
Breach of Securities Law Another person said some FPIs, at a joint meeting with Sebi, were unwilling to ‘disgorge’ the amount sought by the regulator, which ran into hundreds of crores.
Settlement is a well-trodden route for entities facing securities law violations in India, one that lets them resolve disputes without admitting or denying wrongdoing. An applicant proposes terms to Sebi, which reviews the application and counters with its own, typically a monetary settlement amount, and sometimes non-monetary conditions such as trading bans. The two sides negotiate, and the final proposal goes to Sebi’s high-powered advisory committee, led by a former high court judge, for approval or rejection.
The 13 FPIs are Albula Investment Fund, Cresta Fund, MGC Fund, Asia Investment Corporation (Mauritius), APMS Investment Fund, Elara India Opportunities Fund, Vespera Fund, LTS Investment Fund, Emerging India Focus Funds, EM Resurgent Fund, Polus Global Fund, New Leaina Investments and Opal Investments.
The funds filed multiple settlement applications in April 2024 after Sebi issued show-cause notices to them under two separate tracks – one questioning why their FPI registrations should not be cancelled, and the other seeking to fine them for breaches of securities law. It could not be ascertained which applications were turned down.
Advertisement
The regulator’s original concern was whether these FPIs were genuine public shareholders, or fronts for the Adani Group’s own promoters.
The probe gained global attention after a January 2023 report by Hindenburg Research accused the Adani Group of round-tripping and market manipulation, triggering a sharp sell-off in its stocks. The conglomerate denied the allegations.
In its submissions to the Supreme Court in August 2023, amid multiple public interest litigations seeking a probe into the Hindenburg claims, Sebi disclosed that it had reviewed trading in seven Adani stocks – Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports & SEZ, Adani Green Energy, Adani Energy Solutions, Adani Power, Adani Total Gas and Adani Wilmar – between March 2020 and December 2022, examining price-volume manipulation and breaches of minimum public shareholding, FPI investment limit and offshore derivative instrument norms.
The regulator identified 42 contributories to the FPIs’ assets under management. But it hit a wall trying to trace their ultimate beneficial owners, hampered by a lack of cooperation from its foreign counterparts.
Advertisement
When the Supreme Court disposed of the PILs in January 2024, it directed Sebi to bring its investigations to a “logical conclusion in accordance with law.”
With Sebi rejecting the settlement applications, the regulator will now continue legal proceedings against the FPIs.
Sebi, Adani Group and the FPIs did not respond to emailed queries.
Second Chance
Advertisement
The door may not stay shut for long. Sebi is planning to revise its settlement rules in a way that could give rejected applicants, including, potentially, these FPIs, another shot at resolving their cases.
Currently, an entity that has had its settlement application rejected cannot reapply at any stage of proceedings, including during an appeal. Under the proposed changes, applicants would be allowed to return to the settlement table if circumstances have changed and the grounds for the original rejection no longer apply. The price of a second chance: an additional 20% on top of the settlement amount.
Yes. Corporate subscriptions are available for teams and organisations, with discounted rates as user numbers increase. Pricing starts from $1,625 + GST per user. Get in touch
to discuss the right option for your organisation.
Business News subscriptions are used by executives, investors, consultants and professionals who need to stay informed and make better decisions about the WA market. When you subscribe you’ll get
Unlimited access to WA’s most trusted business journalism
Data & Insights — detailed profiles of WA companies, people, projects and deals
MyBN — a personalised feed based on the companies, people and sectors you follow
Special publications and industry reports
Daily and weekly email newsletters
Data & Insights is a research tool built specifically for the WA market. It draws on more than 30 years of Business News reporting, updated regularly to reflect what’s happening now. Use it to:
Look up detailed profiles of WA companies, including financials, directors and ownership
Find decision-makers and track their career movements
Research live and completed projects across WA industries
Monitor deals, appointments and market activity
Access industry rankings and league tables
Data & Insights is updated daily by our dedicated research team, which uses the latest announcements, ASX filings and editorial coverage to keep our person, company, list and project records up to date.
Business News welcome all opportunities to make our dataset accurate, complete and current, so if you have an update request, please email the team at general@businessnews.com.au, and we’d be happy to assist.
Advertisement
MyBN
is part of every subscription. It’s your personalised view of Business News. You can follow the companies, people, sectors and projects that matter to you, and get a news feed and alerts tailored to your interests. You can save articles to read later and retain only what you need.
Only subscribers have full access to all content on the Business News website.
Advertisement
If staying informed about the WA economy is part of your job, and/or you’re looking for networking opportunities in WA, Business News is built for you.
Business News subscribers are:
Executives and directors tracking competitors, clients and market movements
Investors and advisers researching companies, deals and industry trends
Consultants and professionals staying across sectors relevant to their clients
Business owners looking for leads, context and market intelligence
Most Business News publications cover national or global markets. Business News is focused entirely on Western Australia, which means the journalism, the data and the intelligence are all built around WA companies, people and projects — not adapted from a national feed. Data & Insights, included with every subscription, combines more than 30 years of WA-specific editorial research with live business data. There’s no comparable product for the WA market.
Advertisement
The Morning Digest Email provides a comprehensive wrap of the major headlines, relevant to WA business, and includes with a snapshot of the overnight news covering oil, gold and ASX-listed companies.
The Afternoon Wrap Email focuses on the news covered by our team of journalists during the course of the working day, including exclusive stories and analysis, all of which relates to WA business and the local economy.
The BN Weekender Email contains a wrap of the Business News from the week that was, highlighting the top stories in each area of WA business. Sign up for free.
Advertisement
We’re happy to help. Get in touch
and our team will come back to you.
Minimalist retractable door handles became a signature feature of electric vehicles (EVs), but the controversial designs are now at the centre of China’s biggest car recall, affecting more than 4 million vehicles.
The recall, which includes 2.98 million Chinese-made Teslas, follows safety concerns that the hidden door handles are difficult to locate and open in emergency situations.
Other brands affected by the recall include Chinese carmakers XPeng, Xiaomi and Geely.
Made popular by multi-billionaire Elon Musk’s Tesla, hidden door handles are designed to tuck seamlessly within the car’s door panel and only extend outwards approaches their vehicle.
Advertisement
The design came under scrutiny after two fatal crashes in China involving Xiaomi EVs, in which power failures were suspected to have prevented doors from being opened.
Tesla said in a statement on Friday that it was recalling some of its Model 3, Y, S and X vehicles due to door handles that are “difficult to identify and operate because their colour is similar to the interior trim”.
This could hinder occupants or rescuers from quickly opening the doors in an emergency, such as during a “severe collision causing the vehicle’s low-voltage system to fail.”
Tesla said it will place warning labels on the recalled vehicles and issue a software update to automatically lower a vehicle’s windows after a collision.
Advertisement
It is not clear if the affected firms plan to make a similar recall for the rest of the world.
The BBC has contacted Tesla, XPeng, Xiaomi and Geely for comment.
Under new rules due to take effect on 1 January 2027, cars will only be allowed to be sold in China if they have a mechanical release on both the inside and outside of their doors.
John Ruthven – CEO & Director Peter McClelland – Chief Financial Officer
Advertisement
Conference Call Participants
Sinclair Currie – MA Moelis Australia Securities, Research Division Andrew Johnston – MST Financial Services Pty Limited, Research Division Evan Karatzas
Presentation
Advertisement
Operator
Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Nuix Limited Full Year ’26 Results. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. John Ruthven, CEO. Please go ahead.
John Ruthven CEO & Director
Advertisement
Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Nuix’s Full Year 2026 Results Presentation. I’m John Ruthven, Nuix’s Chief Executive Officer; and with me today is our Chief Financial Officer, Peter McClelland. Today, I’ll start with our key messages and metrics for the year. Peter will then take you through our FY ’26 financial performance in detail. I’ll return to discuss how we’re scaling Nuix Neo and integrating Linkurious, before covering what we see as significant platform evolution and strategic reset, the structural changes we’ve made to position the business for its next phase of growth.
I’ll then close out with our outlook before we take questions. Let me start with the highlights from the year. FY ’26 was a year of profitable growth and decisive action. ACV finished at $260 million, well within our previously guided range. Nuix Neo ACV grew 179% to $78.5 million across 135 customers. We delivered strong growth in revenue on further success in selling multiyear deals. Adjusted management EBITDA saw a material expansion with revenue growth significantly outpacing cost growth, in line with our strategic objective. And we achieved a very strong lift in cash generation with underlying cash flow up 154% to $51 million.
And here are the metrics. ACV rose 13.9%. Excluding
“AWS Certified AI Practitioner Early Adopter”I am a DevOps Engineer for a major, wholly owned subsidiary of a large-cap Fortune 500. I have been the primary driver of Anthropic-based tooling in our company’s division, and have successfully pushed for the division-wide integration of tools like Claude Code via AWS Bedrock. I am currently spearheading the implementation of AI-infrastructure in our division.I am a true subject-matter expert on the actual buildout, deployment, and maintenance of AI tools and applications. I have increasingly deep knowledge on the science behind generative AI systems as a result of first-hand experience with machine learning algorithms, model training, and model deployment.I contribute to Seeking Alpha as an outlet to share my AI and machine learning insights through an investment-focused lens.Closely associated with LL InsightsPer TipRanks (6/26/25) – 2 Year Timeframe#716 out of 31,463 Financial Bloggers #1,222 out of 41,143 experts
Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.
Yes. Corporate subscriptions are available for teams and organisations, with discounted rates as user numbers increase. Pricing starts from $1,625 + GST per user. Get in touch
to discuss the right option for your organisation.
Business News subscriptions are used by executives, investors, consultants and professionals who need to stay informed and make better decisions about the WA market. When you subscribe you’ll get
Unlimited access to WA’s most trusted business journalism
Data & Insights — detailed profiles of WA companies, people, projects and deals
MyBN — a personalised feed based on the companies, people and sectors you follow
Special publications and industry reports
Daily and weekly email newsletters
Data & Insights is a research tool built specifically for the WA market. It draws on more than 30 years of Business News reporting, updated regularly to reflect what’s happening now. Use it to:
Look up detailed profiles of WA companies, including financials, directors and ownership
Find decision-makers and track their career movements
Research live and completed projects across WA industries
Monitor deals, appointments and market activity
Access industry rankings and league tables
Data & Insights is updated daily by our dedicated research team, which uses the latest announcements, ASX filings and editorial coverage to keep our person, company, list and project records up to date.
Business News welcome all opportunities to make our dataset accurate, complete and current, so if you have an update request, please email the team at general@businessnews.com.au, and we’d be happy to assist.
Advertisement
MyBN
is part of every subscription. It’s your personalised view of Business News. You can follow the companies, people, sectors and projects that matter to you, and get a news feed and alerts tailored to your interests. You can save articles to read later and retain only what you need.
Only subscribers have full access to all content on the Business News website.
Advertisement
If staying informed about the WA economy is part of your job, and/or you’re looking for networking opportunities in WA, Business News is built for you.
Business News subscribers are:
Executives and directors tracking competitors, clients and market movements
Investors and advisers researching companies, deals and industry trends
Consultants and professionals staying across sectors relevant to their clients
Business owners looking for leads, context and market intelligence
Most Business News publications cover national or global markets. Business News is focused entirely on Western Australia, which means the journalism, the data and the intelligence are all built around WA companies, people and projects — not adapted from a national feed. Data & Insights, included with every subscription, combines more than 30 years of WA-specific editorial research with live business data. There’s no comparable product for the WA market.
Advertisement
The Morning Digest Email provides a comprehensive wrap of the major headlines, relevant to WA business, and includes with a snapshot of the overnight news covering oil, gold and ASX-listed companies.
The Afternoon Wrap Email focuses on the news covered by our team of journalists during the course of the working day, including exclusive stories and analysis, all of which relates to WA business and the local economy.
The BN Weekender Email contains a wrap of the Business News from the week that was, highlighting the top stories in each area of WA business. Sign up for free.
Advertisement
We’re happy to help. Get in touch
and our team will come back to you.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login