UPL Stock Falls Most Since March On Report Of Whistleblower Complaint

Shares of UPL Ltd. fell the most since March to be the worst performer on the Nifty 50 after a report by ET Prime cited a whistleblower complaint alleging wrongdoing in rent deals.

In an interaction with CNBC-TV18, however, the agrochemical maker’s Global Chief Executive Officer Jaidev Shroff refuted the allegations, saying the report is “completely malicious” and the board has not received any whistleblower complaint.

The National Stock Exchange has sought clarification from UPL on the matter. The company didn’t immediately respond to BloombergQuint’s emailed queries.

“Despite the good performance of the business, the whistleblower complaint and change in auditors earlier this year for the company’s Mauritius unit is impacting sentiment,” Abhimanyu Sofat, head of research at IIFL Securities, told Bloomberg over the phone.

Shares of UPL fell as much as 15.5%, the biggest single-day drop since March 23, 2020, to Rs 416.05 apiece. While the stock has recovered from the day’s low, it still trades 12% lower. Its trading volumes today are 13 times higher than its 20-day average.

Of the 35 analysts tracking UPL, 32 have a ‘buy’ rating, two suggest a ‘hold’ and one recommend a ‘sell’. The average of Bloomberg consensus 12-month target prices implies an upside of 40.1%.