Netizens rubbish TMC MP Mahua Moitra's tweet about SBI's overall exposure to Adani Group

New Delhi, Feb 04: Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra on Saturday falsely claimed that the State Bank of India (SBI) owed 27 per cent of its loan book to the Adani group.

Taking to micro-bloggig platform Twitter, Moitra wrote, "SBI says Adani group owes it ₹27000 crores - a whopping 27% of its loan book. Finance Secretary says it is a storm in a cup."

The TMC leader, who belongs to an opposition party and used to be an investment banker in UK, tried to create panic at a time when a malicious Hindenburg Research report targeting Adani Group caused a loss of USD 100 billion for investors in Adani Group.

Later, Moitra quietly deleted her tweet and posted another tweet after getting rid of the percentage of the exposure of SBI to Adani Group.

''$100bn market cap lost in 4 days. LIC, SBI & PNB with large positions in stock. Indian markets slammed for cancelled FPO. Investors losing faith in SEBI. Some storm, some teacup, Mr Finance Secretary,'' Mahua Moitra tweeted.

On Friday, State Bank of India (SBI) chairman Dinesh Khara has said that the bank's overall exposure to Adani Group is 0.88 per cent of the book or about Rs 27,000 crore, and the country's largest lender does not envisage any setback on its bets. At a time when the share prices of the group are getting hammered, the government-owned lender said it has not extended any loans against shares to the ports-to-mining group.

Speaking to reporters after the announcement of results, SBI Chairman clarified that the non-fund exposure is limited to letters of credit and performance bank guarantees, and is not related to any equity raising or acquisition activities of the Gautam Adani-led group.

"As far as the quantum is concerned, that is 0.88 per cent of our total loan book...we don't envisage any kind of a challenge in terms of their ability to service the loan obligations which they have taken," Khara said, adding the group has excellent repayment record.

The going has been tough for the Adani Group over the last week since the release of a report by a US short-seller made allegations of fraudulent transactions and share price manipulation.

The Adani Group cancelled a Rs 20,000 crore share sale a day after the issue was fully subscribed.

Amid the sharp corrections in its stock since last week, the country's largest lender had sought to assuage investor concerns by clarifying that its exposure to Adani Group is fully secured by cash-generating assets.