New Delhi — The report published by US-based short seller Hindenburg Research accusing the conglomerate of stock manipulation and other financial irregularities, according to Gautam Adani, Chairman of the Adani Group, was a combination of “targeted misinformation and outdated, discredited allegations” aimed at harming the conglomerate’s reputation.
Adani claimed in his letter to shareholders that Hindenburg made money by purposefully driving down the price of the stock in the Adani group.
“Just as we were preparing to launch the biggest Follow-on Public Offering (FPO) in India’s history, a US-based shortseller produced a report on the eve of our Republic Day. In the company’s annual report, Adani stated that the report was “a combination of targeted misinformation and outdated, discredited allegations intended to harm our reputation and generate profits through a deliberate drive-down of our stock prices.”
Despite a fully subscribed FPO, he said, the company chose to withdraw and return the funds to investors in order to safeguard their interests.
Additionally, he continued, the short-selling situation had a number of unfavourable effects that the company had to deal with.
“Despite the fact that we immediately responded with a thorough denial, a number of vested interests attempted to take advantage of the short seller’s allegations. These organisations promoted misleading narratives on numerous news and social media channels, according to Adani.
He further mentioned that the Supreme Court of India set up an Expert Committee to look into this issue, but it found no evidence that the organisation had violated any regulations.
“The Committee’s Report not only noted that your company’s mitigation steps helped restore confidence, but it also acknowledged that there were plausible claims of coordinated market destabilisation in India. The quality of our Group’s disclosures was also checked, and no instances of regulatory failure or violations were discovered, according to the chairman.
We are still confident in our governance and transparency standards, he continued, even if the SEBI has yet to submit its assessment.
Since the release of the Hindenburg report on January 24, which accused the group of illegal activities, blatant stock manipulation, and an accounting fraud scheme, shares of Adani Group have seen a severe depreciation in market capitalization.
