Ola Electric denies insider trading reports

Ola Electric on Friday denied reports suggesting two counts of insider trading at the company between October and December last year.

According to an NDTV report, citing three sources, alleged insider trading had come under the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI) scanner following reports that the markets regulator was looking into the accuracy of disclosures the firm had made amidst an investigation into its February sales data discrepancy.

The Bhavish Aggarwal-led firm, in response to these reports, said that the trades made by the Ola Electric employee were routine transactions involving shares acquired through Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) and not through the open market purchase.

Shares of the EV maker ended marginally down at Rs 48.59 apiece on BSE on Friday.

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Ola Electric has found itself at loggerheads with authorities of late. On April 25, the company denied that Maharashtra had sent notice to shut down 100 of its showrooms in the state. However, it confirmed that it had received notices in four states pertaining to trade certificates for some of its stores located in these states.

Ola Electric’s regulatory troubles deepened after sales discrepancies emerged from its February sales data whereby numbers displayed on the national vehicle registry, Vahan, were disparate from those announced by the company.

Multiple reports alleged that Ola Electric had included models that were not rolled out at the time to inflate its sales numbers for the month but the company denied these claims. It stated that February sales data represented “genuine customer demand backed by financial commitment, not token-amount bookings.”

However, the company said this included orders for its new products, Gen 3 and Roadster X, which had been available for purchase, and not pre-orders, at the time.

Notably, on April 30, it postponed the deliveries of its Roadster X motorcycles to May from previously announced April 11.

(Disclaimer: Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO of YourStory, is an independent director at Ola Electric.)