Viceroy Research To Approach SEBI On Vedanta Report | Profit Exclusive

Viceroy Research, the Delaware-based short seller, who published a note on Vedanta Group on Wednesday, said that it will reach out to the markets regulator on its findings.

In an exclusive interview with NDTV Profit, Viceroy’s Co-Founder Fraser Perring spoke about the short seller’s plan with the report on the Anil Agrawal-led Vedanta Group. 

“We are in the process of making our submissions to SEBI, referencing some of the points in law where we feel they have been breached,” Perring told NDTV Profit.

According to him, approaching the stock market regulator will provide a public forum where accountability can be sought from Vedanta Group.

“We will publish our submissions to SEBI,” Perring said.

The Viceroy Research report made multiple allegations against Vedanta Group, claiming that the group was involved in a “bait and switch” model of raising debt, that it was committing capex fraud, and that the actual debt position of the group was far worse than the reported numbers. 

The report claims that minority shareholders, including the government of India, were being damaged by dividend payments to Vedanta Resources Ltd., the holding company of the group. 

Viceroy has shorted the entire debt stack of Vedanta Group companies.

A spokesperson for Vedanta Group has rejected these allegations and claimed that the report is a “malicious combination of selective misleading information and baseless allegations to discredit the group.” The group has also said that the report only contains public information and that the authors have sensationalised things to profiteer from the market reaction.

Vedanta Ltd shares were trading 0.9% lower on the bourses as of 12:34 p.m. The scrip had fallen nearly 7% on Wednesday after the report; however, it pared some losses and closed 3% lower by yesterday’s close.