Running on empty: Gensol promoters lose over half of their ownership

Gensol founder Anmol Jaggi, his younger brother Puneet and their privately owned firm Gensol Ventures owned 62.65% of the company at the end of December 2024. A good 81.7% of promoter shares were pledged to creditors.  

Promoter ownership fell to 35.87%, with 95.1% of shares pledged at the end of March 2025.

Also read: Gensol Engineering shares hit new 52-week low amid reports of ED action against Jaggi brothers; BSE seeks clarification

In April, creditors took control of another 9.19% of shares, leaving the promoters with 26.68% holding at the end of 22 April, according to the exchange data reviewed by Mint.

Put simply: the Jaggi brothers have lost more than 1% of equity daily over the last 31 days of stock trading.

Problems with Ahmedabad-based Gensol surfaced in the public on 3 March when Care Ratings Ltd downgraded its ₹716 crore bank loan to default, citing delays in “servicing of term loan obligations.” Icra Ltd followed the next day, stating Gensol “apparently falsified” information about its debt servicing.

Jaggi and Gensol denied any wrongdoing. However, this triggered shareholders to run for the exit, leaving the shares in free-fall: Gensol shares have crashed 80% since 4 March.

Promoters had to raise more money to cover the loans against Gensol shares from creditors, whose underlying security was falling daily.

Also read: <a class="backlink" target="_blank" href="https://www.livemint.com/companies/gensols-missing-evs-a-262-crore-question-mark-for-lenders-ireda-and-pfc-sebi-loans-nclt-blusmart-anmol-jaggi-11745238381293.html" data-vars-page-type="story" data-vars-link-type="Manual" data-vars-anchor-text="How did Gensol's lenders miss a ₹262-crore gap for more than a year?”>How did Gensol’s lenders miss a ₹262-crore gap for more than a year?

The Jaggi brothers’ inability to put more money led the creditors, from the Indian arm of the Swiss maker of security inks for currencies SICPA to half a dozen financial services firms, to invoke the shares.

Last week, Gensol’s situation worsened after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) accused the promoters of fraud and, in an interim order, barred the Jaggi brothers from holding any executive or board position at Gensol or from trading in securities until further orders.

“The promoters were running a listed public company as if it were a proprietary firm. The company’s funds were routed to related parties and used for unconnected expenses as if the company’s funds were promoters’ piggybank,” Sebi stated in an interim order dated 15 April, asking Gensol to appoint a forensic auditor to comb through its books for irregularities.

Four independent directors resigned, and with the two brothers agreeing to step down from the company’s board, Gensol’s seven-member board has shrunk to one member: Vibhuti Patel, a 30-year-old executive from Ahmedabad.

A week after Sebi’s order, it is still unclear who is at the helm of Gensol. 

Also read: Gensol Engineering share price hits lower circuit for ninth straight session; here’s why

An email sent to Anmol Jaggi seeking clarification went unanswered. 

“The share pledge has increased primarily on account of additional collateral given to the existing lenders due to a decline in the share price,” a spokesperson for Gensol told Mint last week. 

On Tuesday, Gensol’s shares closed at ₹106.10 on the BSE, the lowest in three years. The stock had ended at ₹106.90 on 4 April 2022.