Indiabulls vs Veritas: CEO's reply raises more questions

Indiabulls is doing everything it can to undo the veil of secrecy around it, which was revealed by Canadian research firm Veritas. The group has put out full-page advertisements, given interviews and even sued the authors of the report, in its attempt to come clean. In a report in The Economic Times, CEO Sameer Gehlaut of the “12-year-young” group has termed the report from Veritas a “bundle of lies”. Countering Veritas’s sell rating on all Indiabulls group stocks, Gehlaut says the group’s listed companies appreciated by 2025 percent since an initial public offering in 2004. This in itself is a problem. “The market views anybody who grows so rapidly — particularly in their infancy stage — with suspicion,” Arun Kejriwal, market analyst and CEO of investment consultancy firm KRIS, has been quoted as saying in the report. [caption id=“attachment_419996” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The group has put out full-page advertisements, given interviews and even sued the authors of the report, in its attempt to come clean[/caption] Gehlaut has more numbers to reveal. He says “Indiabulls Financial Services (IBFSL) is the second most profitable mortgage finance company in the country and the 46th most profitable publicly listed firm; that Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd (IBREL) is the least leveraged realty company in India; that two mills bought in Mumbai for Rs 745 crore have created some Rs 6,600 crore of value”, the report says. On allegations of political connections, he insists that the company has no special connections. “We are as connected in political circle as any other business group.” Now, isn’t that an answer, which raise a few more questions? Read the full report here.