Whatsapp-linked lynching on Dalal Street: Shares of Infibeam tank 70 percent
Infibeam’s shares closed at Rs 57.90 on the National Stock Exchange, posting an over 71 percent fall from its previous day close of Rs 200.35.
Shares of Infibeam Avenues Ltd, India's first ecommerce company to go public, tanked today, falling over 7o percent after a WhatsApp message circulated among traders raised concerns about its accounting practices.
Vishal Mehta, Founder, InfibeamInfibeam shares ended at Rs 57.90 on the National Stock Exchange, and stand in sharp contrast its listing price of Rs 458 in March 2016. They had closed at 200.35 on Thursday.
Rumour mills started churning before Infibeam's shareholder meeting on Saturday, as a message attributed to brokerage Equirus Securities Pvt began circulating on WhatsApp, according to a report in Mint. The report said the message was sent a few months ago by an Equirus analyst to some clients and resurfaced on the messaging platform Thursday.
Witnessing the crash in its share price, the company in a filing to the BSE said, “All the material information, that have a bearing on the operation/performance of the Company which include all price sensitive information under Regulation 30 of SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 ("Listing Regulations"), have always been disclosed by the Company within the stipulated time. Further, the Company has always provided timely clarification / information sought by the Stock Exchanges. There is no pending information or announcement from the Company which may have a bearing on the price behaviour in the scrip.”
While the company is yet to file its annual report for FY18, media reports said the WhatsApp message alleged the company had given interest-free and unsecured loans to the tune of Rs 135 crore to its related business units for business operations as of March 31, 2018.
Infibeam has both B2B and B2C ecommerce operations. The company posted a revenue of Rs 91.34 crore in the quarter ending June, 2018, compared with Rs 72.7 crore in the corresponding quarter in the previous financial year. For the quarter ending June 2018, the company reported a loss of Rs 13.8 crore.