An EY member firm which audits some Adani Group companies is being scrutinized by India's accounting regulator, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) in recent weeks started an inquiry into one of the member firms of EY in India, S.R. Batliboi, and requested files and communications related to its audits on some of the companies controlled by Adani going as far back as 2014, the report said.
EY India, S.R. Batliboi, the NFRA and the Adani Group did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment on the report.
It was not clear how long the NFRA's inquiry could take or what repercussions, if any, could be faced by the auditor or the audited, Bloomberg said. While the auditor and the Adani Group did not respond to Bloomberg News' request for comment, a representative for EY and S.R. Batliboi declined to comment, the report said.
S.R. Batliboi currently audits five of Adani's listed firms - Adani Power, Adani Green Energy, Adani Wilmar, and recently acquired cement companies ACC and Ambuja Cements.
The Bloomberg report comes months after the billionaire Gautam Adani-controlled conglomerate was thrown into turmoil by a short-seller report accusing the group of improper use of tax havens and other business dealings - allegations Adani has denied.
In August, Deloitte resigned as auditor of Adani Ports, the first such move after Hindenburg's report in January, amid concerns over certain related party transactions that Hindenburg had raised and which the company did not wish to look into independently.
The conglomerate's seven main listed firms lost about $150 billion of its market capitalisation after the Hindenburg report and have only recovered a part of those losses after paying down some debt.
