Kajaria Ceramics shares in red after firm said it may not recover full Rs 20 crore lost in fraud by arm's CFO

Kajaria Ceramics shares in red after firm said it may not recover full Rs 20 crore lost in fraud by arm's CFO

Shares of Kajaria Ceramics were trading marginally lower on December 22 after the company's management said it may not recover full amount of Rs 20 crore siphoned off by the chief financial officer of its wholly-owned step-down subsidiary.

At 2:05 pm on December 22, Kajaria Ceramics shares were trading 0.4% lower at Rs 1,049 apiece.

Post-market hours on December 19, Kajaria Ceramics said Dilip Kumar Maliwal, chief financial officer of its wholly-owned subsidiary Kajaria Bathware, was found to have committed a fraud of Rs 20 crore over the past two years. The company said Maliwal was involved in embezzlement and siphoning of funds of Kerovit Global, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kajaria Bathware and a step-down wholly-owned subsidiary of Kajaria Ceramics.

In an analyst call on December 22, Kajaria Ceramics' top management said, "Fundamentals of our company remain quite strong, reviewed all other subsidiaries, no discrepancy was found."

"This amount of fraud will be shown as an exceptional item, recovered approximately Rs 50 lakh, not hopeful about the full amount being recovered. But he has promised to return some money," the management further said.

Kajaria Ceramics management had filed a complaint with the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Economic Offences Wing, Delhi Police, and the Station House Officer, Badarpur police station, on December 18. The matter is currently under investigation.