Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has dismissed accusations of insider trading against Pranav Adani and six others, closing a long-running probe into deals carried out before Adani Green Energy Ltd’s (AGEL) announcement of its $3.5 billion acquisition of SB Energy in May 2021, which the regulator failed to wrap up on separate charges. determined, after finding that the assumptions underlying the show cause notices, including the duration of the unpublished price sensitive information (UPSI) period and the status of information in the public domain, were inconsistent with the evidence on record. The regulator reconstructed in detail how discussions between AGEL and the sellers of SB Energy progressed. According to the orders, internal deliberations, preliminary exchanges and indicative valuations circulated within AGEL till mid-May did not qualify as UPSI. Sebi said that the information began to take a more definitive form only after the execution of a non-disclosure agreement between the parties on May 13, 2021, when the virtual data room was opened and the negotiation of preliminary exchanges moved to concrete due diligence and transaction workflows. Even then, the same elements identified by the inquiry report as UPSI were released into the public domain soon after. The orders reproduce detailed press reports published on May 16 and 17, 2021, which describe AGEL’s potential acquisition of SB Energy, the size and nature of SB Energy’s renewable portfolio, the status of ongoing discussions, expected valuation contours and AGEL’s internal due diligence progress. Sebi noted that these reports brought information into the public domain which the show notices treated as UPSI, making the information “generally available” from the afternoon of May 16. The regulator also noted that AGEL’s share price reacted sharply to these publications, with the stock hitting the upper circuit on May 17 and rising further on May 18, moves larger than the one seen on the actual announcement day, May 19, 2021, when the stock rose by 3.75%. In both cases, the regulator noted that the investigation’s underlying assumptions, particularly the SCN’s framing of the UPSI period as extending from April 29 to May 19, were inconsistent with the evidence, AGEL’s own explanations and the chronology established in the orders. Since the information had either not yet become UPSI or had entered the public domain before the transactions, Sebi found no basis to support the allegations. Allegations of insider trading Sebi’s two insider trading proceedings, one involving Pranav Adani and the other involving Vinod Bahety and entities associated with him, stem from AGEL’s acquisition of SB Energy from SoftBank Group Capital and Bharti Global, which was announced on 19 May 2021. The regulator viewed the transaction as a price-6 increased capacity and AGEL’s operating capacity. overall portfolio by 33%. Sebi initially alleged that Pranav Adani, a director in several Adani group companies, was in possession of UPSI about the acquisition and communicated it to his relatives Kunal and Nrupal Shah, who allegedly traded AGEL shares on that basis and made illegal profits. Similarly, Sebi alleged that Bahety, then head of mergers and acquisitions at the group, had similar access to UPSI and passed it on to connected entities, including Rajtaru Enterprises and MC Jain Infoservices, which also traded in AGEL during the period. Both probes covered trading carried out between January 28 and August 20, 2021, after Sebi on April 20, 2023 appointed an Inquiry Officer to investigate possible insider trading related to the impending acquisition.