Tata group, with 29 listed companies, topped the list of business conglomerates in terms of number of shareholders, with a base of nearly 20 million as of March-end. Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (R-ADAG) group captured the second spot with 7.37 million shareholders.
Among individual companies, Yes Bank topped the pecking order with 5.06 million shareholders, followed by Tata Power with 3.89 million and Tata Motors with 3.81 million investors.
The addition of 2.27 million investors by Adani Group firms taking the total to 7.10 million as of March-end — the highest for a conglomerate — was aided by investors “buying the dip” following the report by Hindenburg Research.
On January 24, US-based Hindenburg Research published findings of a two-year investigation, alleging that Adani Group had participated in market manipulation and accounting malpractices. The group had denied all allegations.
The shareholder interest in all Adani Group companies rose during the quarter, with that in Adani Enterprises being the highest (up 194.6%), followed by Adani Total Gas (up 121.7%) and Adani Transmission (up 111.8%).
Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Group came in fourth with a total of 4.90 million shareholders, a 5.4% rise from 4.65 million it had as of December-end. With a total of 4.60 million shareholders for its four companies, HDFC group ranked fifth.
Despite the rise in Adani Group’s shareholder base, the pecking order of the top five business conglomerates remained unchanged during the quarter.
While, L&T group stood at sixth place (3 million), ICICI group came in seventh (2.99 million). The Aditya Birla group was in the eighth slot with a total investor base of 2.54 million, a meagre fall of 0.2% from the sequential December quarter.
Bajaj group ranked ninth with 2.21 million shareholders and Mahindra group came in 10th with 2.04 million.
On the individual companies list, Reliance Industries came in fourth and Tata Steel at fifth place (after Yes Bank, Tata Power and Tata Motors) with about 3.64 million and 3.59 million shareholders respectively, followed by Life Insurance Corporation of India (3.38 million), Reliance Power (3.22 million), Vodafone Idea (3.03 million), State Bank of India (2.99 million) and ITC (2.93 million). While Yes Bank continued to maintain its top position as of March-end, Tata Power moved up one slot to second position and pushed Tata Motors to third slot.
As an individual company, Reliance Industries moved up to the fourth position from the earlier sixth, and Tata Steel to the fifth slot (from earlier 7). The biggest fall was that of Reliance Power, which slid to seventh position from the earlier fourth.