India's Adani still eligible to be part of influential JPMorgan bond indexes

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -India's Adani group of companies, which in recent weeks has seen a brutal selloff in its bonds and shares after being targetted by a U.S. short-seller, is still eligible for inclusion in JPMorgan's influential bond indexes, the bank said in a note.

Adani, whose business interest includes ports, power generation and transmission, and renewable energy, has a total notional value of $7.7 billion in the JPMorgan's CEMBI and JACI indexes, the bank said on Monday.

JPMorgan Corporate Emerging Market Bond Index series (CEMBI) tracks dollar debt issued by emerging market corporations, while its Asia Credit Index (JACI) tracks the total return performance of the Asia fixed-rate dollar bond market.

Besides CEMBI and JACI, Adani's dollar bonds remain eligible to be part of JPMorgan's ESG Global Corporate Index (JESG), an integrated environmental, social, and governance corporate benchmark covering investment grade and high-yield markets.

"We continue to monitor publicly available information and liquidity of the securities, and in case of market disruption or confirmed default event," the U.S. bank said in its note.

JP Morgan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shares and dollar bonds of the Adani group of companies have been under pressure since a Jan. 24 critical report by short-seller Hindenburg Research, with the group's cumulative stock market value losses topping $110 billion.

Adani has rejected in detailed rebuttals Hindenburg's allegations of stock manipulation and use of tax havens, and criticism that it had unsustainable debt.

The group's flagship company, Adani Enterprises, was forced to abandon a $2.5 billion share sale last week. Group Chairman Gautam Adani also lost his title as Asia's richest person.

After the release of Hindenburg's report, Adani's weight has decreased by 10 basis points to 36 basis points in the CEMBI Broad Div index and by 15 basis points to 48 basis points in the CEMBI Broad Div IG index, the JPMorgan note said.

    The Indian conglomerate's weight decreased by 16 basis points to 52 basis points in the JACI index, it added. 

(Reporting by Rae Wee in Singapore and Marc Jones in London; Editing by Kim Coghill and Muralikumar Anantharaman)