Adani group finds an anchor in LIC

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Editor's note: A significant obstacle in Gautam Adani’s quest to reach a $1 trillion (Rs 81.7 lakh crore) valuation for his Adani group has been cast aside. The billionaire has found an anchor for the group’s stocks in Life Insurance Corporation of India as he focuses on the next decade of business expansion. Over the past two years, LIC has been accumulating shares in five of the seven listed Adani companies. The country’s largest life insurer has over Rs 78,220 crore invested in the group, which is 4.9x what mutual funds have in the same stocks. A year ago, LIC’s Adani group exposure stood at Rs 32,100 crore.  These investments make the Adani group the third largest investee entity for LIC after Reliance Industries and the Tata group. Unlike its rival conglomerates, the Adani group’s shares have always been largely held by the promoters and a clutch of foreign portfolio investors, or FPIs. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs), mutual funds and retail investors have mostly stayed away from investing in the company. This shareholding structure became particularly prickly when concerns were raised over …