Hindenburg reply to Adani: What has happened so far?

The Hindenburg Research responded to the Adani Group's rebuttal of its accusations, calling it an "attempt to obfuscate by nationalism."

“The Adani Group has not even attempted to clarify its relationship with a Chinese national (Chang Chung-Ling), despite a plethora of ties,” the response added.

In its latest statement, the short seller said the Adani Group did not respond to questions in its original report, noting one about the nature of the relationship between Vinod Adani (Gautam Adani's older brother) and Chang Chung-Ling, nor the group relationship association with Chinese national.

Hindenburg reply to Adani

"We also showed how several of the shady stock parking entities had been formed with the help of Amicorp, which was involved in one of the most notorious international fraud and money laundering scandals in history, the 1MDB scandal".

"We also noted that the recent Follow On Public Offering (FPO) at Adani Enterprises contains many of the same type of Mauritian funds that we flagged as a clear violation of SEBI regulations,” the statement alleges.

He also gave an example of Adani Enterprises' main investor list, claiming that it "contains a large number of suspicious Mauritian funds, such as (1) Ayushmat Limited (2) Coeus Global Opportunities Fund (3) Great International Tusker Fund and (4) ) Flyer Global Investments".

“Hours ago, Adani posted a ‘413 page response. It began with the tabloid claim that we are the "Madoffs of Manhattan."

Unsurprisingly, It too tried to divert attention from the substantive issues and instead stoked a nationalist narrative, claiming that our report amounted to a "calculated attack on India".

"In short, the Adani Group has tried to combine its meteoric rise and the wealth of its chairman, Gautam Adani, with the success of India itself. We disagree," the firm said.

The statement further added: "To be clear, we believe that India is a vibrant democracy and an emerging superpower with an exciting future".

"We also believe that the future of India is being held back by the Adani Group, which has wrapped itself in the Indian flag while systematically looting the nation" the firm said.

“Our report asked 88 questions specific to the Adani Group. In his response, Adani did not specifically respond to 62 of them. Instead, they mainly grouped the questions into categories and provided generalized deviations,” the research company added.

Adani's rebuttal

India's wealthiest group Gautam Adani on Sunday likened the damning allegations made by short-seller Hindenburg Research to a "calculated attack" on India, its institutions and its history of growth, saying the allegations are "nothing more than a lie."

In a 413-page response, Adani Group said the report was prompted by "an ulterior motive" to "create a false market" to allow the US company to make a financial gain.

"This is not simply an unwarranted attack on a specific company, but a calculated attack on India, the independence, integrity and quality of Indian institutions, and India's history of growth and ambition," he said.

Of the 88 questions raised by Hindenburg, 65 of them relate to matters that have been duly disclosed by Adani's portfolio companies, the Adani Group said.

"Of the remaining 23 questions, 18 relate to public shareholders and third parties (and not Adani's portfolio companies), while the remaining 5 are unsubstantiated allegations based on imaginary fact patterns."

Adani rejects Hindenburg report

Adani Group CFO Jugeshinder Singh has rejected the Hindenburg report, stating that it is “a malicious combination of targeted misinformation and rancid, baseless and discredited accusations that have been proven and rejected by Indian courts.”

The statement adds that Hindenburg never contacted the company and criticizes the timing of the report’s release, saying it “clearly betrays a brazen and bad faith intent to undermine the reputation of the Adani Group with the primary aim of damaging the next public offering of the company.

Adani Stock Plunge

Shares of the Adani group of companies fell sharply during the morning trading session on Wednesday.

Gautam Adani has slipped to seventh on Forbes’ real-time list of the world’s richest people, as the Adani Group companies have lost a combined market capitalization of $48 billion since Wednesday following the report of Hindenburg Research.

According to the Forbes Real Times Billionaires Index, Adani’s wealth plummeted by more than $22.5 billion to $96.8 billion for the day.

Adani now ranks below Microsoft founder Bill Gates, whose fortune was estimated at $104.1 billion on the rich list.

Adani Enterprises lost nearly 19 per cent on Friday, the most since 2017. The shares closed 11 per cent below the low end of the price band set for the trailing share sale.

Some units including Adani Green Energy and Adani Total Gas slumped over the 20 per cent daily limit, adding to a $12 billion selloff at group companies on Wednesday. Volumes for these shares were at least triple their three-month average.

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