LIC doubles down on Adani amid short seller row

India’s largest life insurer is plowing more money into Gautam Adani’s flagship unit, undeterred by a short seller’s fraud allegations that wiped out more than Rs 4,08,122 ($50 billion) of the conglomerate’s market value in two sessions.

State-controlled Life Insurance Corp. of India is spending about Rs 302 crore ($37 million) as an anchor investor in a Rs 20,406 cr ($2.5 billion) new share sale by Adani Enterprises Ltd., according to a filing. The investment would add to its current holding of 4.23 per cent.

LIC’s investment signaled its vote of confidence in Asia’s richest man and his beleaguered group on Jan. 25, which is facing its toughest test yet after US-based Hindenburg Research in its report earlier this week characterized its meteoric rise as “the largest con in corporate history.”