Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd – the top donor to political parties – donated over five times its consolidated profits in the same period.
Keventers Group Firm donated Rs 195 crore in just two months during the 2019 General Elections, despite reporting a profit of only Rs 12.24 lakhs in FY2020.
IFB Agro Industries spent nearly 53% (92.3 crore) of its net profits in four years to purchase electoral bonds.
These are some of the key findings which emerged after The Quint analysed the electoral bonds data released by the State Bank of India (SBI) and made public by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday, 14 March.
While the financial performance of many of these companies has been weak, they seem to have donated a significant chunk of their earnings or profits to political parties through the now-banned electoral bonds, which the Supreme Court labelled as “unconstitutional.”
The Quint combed through multiple publicly available annual reports, accessed using the Ministry of Corporate Affairs website, and data from other websites such as Tofler and Zauba Corp to break it down for you. Let’s take a look:
While the financial performance of many of these companies has been weak, they seem to have donated a significant chunk of their earnings or profits to political parties.
(Photo: Kamran Akhter/The Quint)
The Quint has also reached out to all the 15 companies mentioned in the report seeking a comment. This story will be updated once they respond.
Keventers Group-owned Firms
Four firms — Keventer Foodpark Infra Pvt Ltd, Madanlal Ltd, Samsal Infrastructure and MKJ Enterprises Ltd — are registered at the same address in West Bengal and belong to the Kolkata-based FMCG Keventer group of companies.
The four firms donated Rs 616.9 crore between 2019-2020 and 2022-2023. Of this, Rs 380.5 crore was donated in 2019, and the rest in 2022 and 2023.
Keventers Foodpark Infra Pvt Ltd, (renamed Magnificent Foodpark Projects Limited in 2020), donated the highest amount, Rs 195 crore, in three separate transactions between 16 April 2019 and 8 May 2019. Keventers Foodpark donated Rs 55 crore on 16 April 2019 and Rs 75 crore on 7 May, and Rs 65 crore on 8 May 2019.
But, according to the company’s annual statement for the financial year 2019-2020, the company registered a net profit of ONLY Rs 1.24 million, which is 12.4 lakh rupees.
Madanlal Limited donated Rs 185.5 crore in the financial year 2019-2020, which is nearly hundred times its net profit before taxes for that year. In FY 2020, the company reported a profit before tax (PBT) of Rs 1.84 crore.
The payments made through Keventer Foodpark and Madanlal came right in between the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal. Madanlal donated Rs. 110 crores on 8 May and Rs 75.5 crore on 10 May 2019.
MKJ Enterprises Ltd, a stainless-steel company, donated a total of 192.42 crore between 2019-2020 to 2022-2023.
In 2019, when the company registered a net profit of Rs 5.03 crores, donated more than twice the amount of Rs 14.4 crore to political parties in electoral bonds. In 2021, the company purchased bonds worth Rs 35.4 crore.
In 2022, the company purchased bonds worth Rs 45 crore, despite it reporting a net profit of Rs 62.9 crore.
The contributions from MKJ came mostly in smaller amounts in 2023, Rs 28 crore on 12 October 2023, Rs 15 crore on 18 November 2023.
Note: The financials for the year 2021-2022 is not available in the public domain.
Navayuga Engineering Company Limited
Telangana-based Navayuga Engineering Company Limited has purchased a total of Rs 55 crore in electoral bonds between April 2019 and October 2022. It was raided by Income Tax officials in October 2018, six months before the company bought its first set of electoral bonds.
The company made headlines in November 2023, when 41 workers were trapped for 17 days inside the Uttarakhand's Silkyara-Barkot tunnel, which the company is building.
In the last four years, Navayuga Engineering has registered a consolidated net loss of Rs 495 crore, data analysed by The Quint shows.
In FY 2019-20, the company made losses to the tune of Rs 78.09 crore yet bought electoral bonds worth Rs 45 crore during the same year.
Of this, they had bought the first sum of Rs 30 crore electoral bonds — in 30 individual bonds of Rs 10 crore denomination each — on 18 April 2019. They went on to purchase 15 bonds on 10 October 2019.
On 10 October 2022, the remaining bonds worth Rs 10 crore were purchased, which is nearly 10% of their annual profit of Rs 99.9 crore for the same year.
In April 2021, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd acquired complete control of Krishnapatnam Port Co Ltd from the Navayuga Group for Rs 2,800 crore. Read more about the company here.
Qwik Supply Chain Limited
The third-largest donor to political parties, Maharashtra-based Qwik Supply Chain bought bonds worth Rs 410 crores between January 2022 and November 2023.
However, the warehousing company’s profits for the last four financial years are to the tune of Rs 109.6 crore. This means that Qwik Supply Chain donated 377 percent of its earnings to political parties.
According to a report by news agency Reuters, three companies – Reliance Group Support, Reliance Fire Brigade and Reliance Hospital Management – together own 50.04 percent stake in Qwik Supply Chain Ltd.
In FY 2019-20, Qwik Supply Chain earned profits worth Rs 29.61 crore.
In FY 2020-21, the company earned profits worth Rs 24.24 crore.
In FY 2021-22, Qwik Supply Chain earned profits worth Rs 22.09 crore.
In FY 2022-23, Qwik Supply Chain earned profits worth Rs 33.65 crore and bought electoral bonds worth Rs 360 crore -- over ten times its profit for the same year and over three times its consolidated profit for the last four fiscal years.
IFB Agro Industries Limited
West Bengal-based IFB Agro Industries Limited has a sizeable presence in the state's production of Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) and seafood processing. Between 2021 and 2024, it purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 92.3 crore.
After analysing their annual reports from 2019-2020 to 2022-2023, it’s been found that the company has had a combined standalone net profit of Rs 175.8 crore over the last four years. Out of this, 53% (92.3 crore) has been used to donate to bonds.
Here’s a breakdown:
The company, on 8 October 2021, purchased 12 bonds worth Rs 1 crore each, and on 5 January 2022, it purchased bonds worth Rs 25 crore. This means that Rs 37 crore (69.3%) was donated to political parties in the financial year 2020-2022, despite earning a standalone net profit of only Rs 53.34 crore.
In 2022, the company’s board of directors approved “contributions to political parties by way of subscription to the electoral bonds in one or more tranches aggregating not more than Rs 40 crore for the financial year 2022-23”.
Subsequently, the company purchased bonds worth Rs 21 crore between January 2022 to January 2023, despite their cumulative profit standing at Rs 51 crore that years. Which means that the company purchased bonds worth more than half their profits.
In 2023, the company purchased bonds worth Rs 45.3 crore. A year later, in February 2024, it declared that it had contributed Rs 40 crore to political parties through electoral bonds in the first nine months of the financial year 2023-2024.
This contribution is three times its profits after tax (PAT) in the same period for three quarters, which stands at Rs 13.87 crore.
What is interesting to note here is that in a recording of the company’s Annual General Meeting for FY2023, Executive Vice-Chairman Arup Kumar Banerjee and Managing Director and CEO Amitabha Mukhopadhyay said that the bonds were bought “As per our instructions from the government.”
“The business continues to face issues as reported earlier and to maintain the continuity of the business and to protect the interest of all the stakeholders, the Company paid Rs 18.30 Crs towards subscription of the Electoral Bonds during the year. The Company has further paid 15 Crores towards subscription of Electoral Bonds in the Month of April 2023. The stiff competition along with the issues faced has led to a decline in the volumes by 9%,” the company said in its annual report accessed by The Quint.
Future Gaming and Hotel Services Private Limited
Coimbatore-based Future Gaming and Hotel Services Private Limited, the lottery company which has emerged as the top donor to political parties according to electoral bonds data, donated over five times their annual profit in the last four years.
According to the data released by the Election Commission on Thursday, 14 March, Future Gaming, owned by lottery magnate Santiago Martin, bought electoral bonds worth Rs 1,368 crore between October 2020 and January 2024.
However, the company’s combined profit in the last four years – between FY 2019-20 and FY 2022-23 – has been registered at Rs 263 crore. This implies that the company donated over five times of its net profit to political parties through electoral bonds.
In FY 2020-21, Future Gaming registered a net profit of Rs 57 crore and donated Rs 150 crore - nearly three times its profit for the same year.
In FY 2021-22, the company earned Rs 49.43 crore in profits and bought electoral bonds worth Rs 544 crore - nearly 11 times its profit in the same period.
In FY 2022-23, Future Gaming registered net profits worth 48.30 crore in profits and donated Rs 328 crore - over six times its profits - through electoral bonds.
The company has bought electoral bonds worth Rs 346 crore from April 2023 to January this year.
Despite several run-ins with central investigative agencies including the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Future Gaming’s annual turnover for FY 2021-22 was over Rs 20,000 crore, according to the company’s annual report. The company’s website states that it has paid more than Rs 6,000 crore as GST in the state of West Bengal alone, since July 2017.
Chennai Green Woods Pvt Ltd
Chennai Green Woods Private Ltd is a construction company owned by the Ramky Group, whose chairman is YSRCP Rajya Sabha MP Ayodhya Rami Reddy. This company purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 105 crore from January 5, 2022 to October 12, 2023.
But on analysing the company's financial performance between 2019-2020 and 2022-23, The Quint found out that the net profit of the company for the last four years has been only over Rs 36.6 crore.
The Income Tax Department raised 15 properties of this construction firm in July 2021. Nearly six months later, in January 2022, the company purchased bonds worth Rs 50 crore, which is over three times the net profit (Rs 14.15 crore) that the company had registered in the financial year 2021-2022.
The company once again donated Rs 40 crore in April 2022 and Rs 15 crore in October 2023, which makes a total of Rs 65 crore. However, for FY2022-23, the company registered a profit of only Rs 22.26 crore. Which means that it has donated thrice the times its profit.
Infotel Technologies Private Limited
Delhi-based Infotel Technologies Private Limited, which provides technology services, purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 10 crore in May 2019.
An analysis by The Quint of the company's annual reports for the financial years between 2019-2020 to 2022-2023 shows that the company has registered a net profit of only Rs 14.3 crore in the last four years.
Infotel Technologies Private Limited purchased 10 electoral bonds worth Rs 1 crore each on 9 May 2019.
But for FY2019-2020, the company reported a profit of only Rs 1.33 crore, which means that Infotel Technologies Private Limited purchased bonds worth nearly ten times its profit for the corresponding year.
Infotel Technologies had three directors: Kamal Kumar Sharma, Akhilesh Tripathi and Nitin Ved.
This company is linked to Surendra Lunia, an old business associate of Mukesh Ambani, through their director Kamal Kumar Sharma, who is the Executive Director and CFO at Lunia’s Infotel group.
Rithwik Projects Private Limited
Hyderabad-based Rithwik Projects Private Limited, a mining and infrastructure company, donated electoral bonds worth Rs 45 crore to political parties in the year 2023.
The company, founded by Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Rajya Sabha MP, CM Ramesh, is a major player in the infrastructure development sector across India, and holds important government contracts.
Rithwik Projects Pvt Ltd donated Rs 5 crore on 27 January 2023 and Rs 40 crore on 11 April 2023. But available data for the financial years FY2021 and FY2022 shows that the company has garnered a net profit of Rs 142.24 crore.
This shows that the company bought electoral bonds worth 31.6 percent of its net profit for FY 2021 and FY 2022.
The company purchased bonds worth Rs 5 crore just weeks after it bagged the Rs 1,098-crore Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for the Sunni hydroelectric project in Himachal Pradesh.
Bharti Airtel Limited
Bharti Airtel Limited, which is a listed telecommunication company with operations in 16 countries across Asia, bought Rs 198 crore worth of electoral bonds between April 2019 and January 2024. In the same period, though, the telecom company registered a consolidated net loss of Rs 26,170 crore.
In FY 2019-20, the telecom company made losses to the tune of Rs 31,316 crore yet bought electoral bonds worth Rs 15 crore for donating to political parties.
In FY 2021-22, Airtel bought poll bonds to the tune of Rs 5 crore; it made a consolidated profit of Rs 5,882 crore in the same fiscal. In addition, Bharti Telemedia, which is a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, bought bonds worth Rs 30 crore in April 2021.
In November 2023 alone, the telecom company bought bonds worth Rs 93 crore; while in January 2024, it bought bonds worth Rs 50 crore.
The longest serving director on the board is Sunil Bharti Mittal, who was appointed in July 1995. The telecom company has posted a total revenue of Rs 1,40,081 crore or Rs 1.4 lakh crore for FY 2022-23.
Smaller Firms Spend More Than Paid-Up Capital
In addition to this, there are smaller firms whose paid-up or equity capital was way lesser than the amount of electoral bonds they purchased between 2019-2023.
Paid-up capital is simply the total amount of money shareholders have paid for shares at the initial issuance. It is money that a company receives from selling stock directly to investors.
Note: While the yearly profits of the below-mentioned firms were not immediately available, some of the companies with paid up capital in just lakhs of rupees purchased bonds worth crores of rupees within months of being set up.
1. Vasavi Avenues LLP: This Hyderabad-based company was registered on 6 April 2023, with a paid-up capital of Rs 10 lakh. Within three months of inception, the company purchased bonds worth Rs 5 crore on 12 July 2023.
2. Tsharks Infra Developers Pvt Ltd: Tsharks is a real-estate brand in Telangana and was set up with a paid-up capital of Rs 1 lakh in March 2023. Within four months, in July 2023, they bought bonds worth Rs 3.5 crore.
3. Tsharks Overseas Education Consultancy Pvt Ltd: Registered under the same address as Tsharks Infra Developers Pvt Ltd, this company was set up in May 2023 with a paid-up capital of Rs 1 lakh. In July 2023, they bought bonds worth Rs 4 crore.
4. Aparna Farms and Estates LLP: The construction firm was registered on 18 August 2020 with a paid-up capital of Rs 5 lakhs. Owned by Subramanyam Reddy Sannareddy and Venkateswara Reddy Chennuru, the company donated Rs 30 crore between October-November 2023.
(With inputs from Tarun Belwal, and Abhilash Mallick.)
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