Baseless And Defamatory: Motilal Oswal Clarifies On Kalyan Jewellers Rumours

Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd. issued a clarification on rumours around its investments in Kalyan Jewellers Ltd. on Sunday. The allegations, which have been circulating on social media sites too, suggested that employees at the fund manager's subsidiary, Motilal Oswal AMC, were being bribed to up the fund's holdings in the Kerala-based jewellery company.

The asset management company released a statement on Sunday, wherein it called the claims "baseless, malicious, and defamatory".

"These baseless accusations are a deliberate attempt by individuals with vested interests to malign the good reputation that our firm and leadership have built over decades," the release read.

Chairman and Managing Director of the parent, Motilal Oswal, also clarified on social media platform X that the company is a "responsible organisation built over 38 years of solid track record in governance, ethical practices, regulatory compliances and customer centricity."

Mutual funds had an exposure of Rs 9,291 crore in Kalyan Jewellers as of December, with Motilal Oswal having the highest. Its exposure makes up nearly 54% of the total mutual fund exposure to the stock and 6% of MOSL Mutual Fund's assets under management.

On Dec. 14, Kalyan Jewellers' Executive Director, Ramesh Kalyanaraman, had told analysts, "I can confirm that there have been no raids at any of our premises."

"I presume that there might have been some rumours floating around, which are all baseless and that is the main intention of this call," he had added.

On a year-to-date basis, shares of Motilal Oswal are down over 16%, while Kalyan's stock has taken a 31% hit. This is against a 2.3% decline in the benchmark NSE Nifty 50.

Today, shares of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd. surged as much as 4% while those of Kalyan Jewellers jumped over 9%. Meanwhile the Nifty 50 traded flat.