Indiabulls ‘blackmail’ charge: Veritas was only citing its subscription fee

Veritas analyst Neeraj Monga has clarified that the controversial mail on which Indiabulls accused the research group of extortion only quoted the annual $40,000-50,000 subscription price charged by it for its reports.

Monga has also said that the mail was sent from his official address to London-based FII Altima Partners in response to a query from one of its employees, Prashant Periwal.

Altima Partners, which manages funds of $1.2 billion, wanted to procure Veritas reports to make informed investments in India, and one of the reports Veritas had prepared was on Indiabulls.

Submitting this email as evidence, Indiabulls had alleged extortion, cheating and defamation by Monga, claiming he had demanded money for holding back a report on Indiabulls.

This was filed after Veritas came out with a "SELL" report on Indiabulls Financial Services, Indiabulls Power and Indiabulls Real Estate on August 8, which led to a sharp 10 per cent fall in the share prices of the three companies.

Monga, Executive Vice-President, Veritas Investment Research, told The Indian Express that he wrote to Altima Partners only after he received a query. "Yes, it (the research report) was for sale to Altima Partners in London. It was in response to a query from Prashant Periwal, an employee of that firm," said Monga.

The e-mail conversation between Monga and Periwal, a copy of which is available with The Indian Express, shows that Monga had quoted $40,000-50,000 as annual subscription price to the reports of Veritas.

Periwal refused to comment on the e-mail exchange, saying: "I am neither confirming nor denying it, as we are not talking on this issue. Also I am not authorised to speak about the same."

Indiabulls too declined to comment and said it would wait for the legal proceedings through police, Sebi and the Canadian authorities.

In his introductory mail, Periwal had written to Veritas saying: "Altima is an institutional asset management firm with US $1.2 bn under management. I would like to subscribe to Veritas research. Do let me know how to take it forward."

... contd.

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