Adani response confirms findings, ignores key questions: Hindenburg on Adani rebuttal

Adani Group building at Adani Shantigram near Ahmedabad. File.
| Photo Credit: VIJAY SONEJI

Hours after the Adani Group issued a detailed rebuttal to the allegations of “stock manipulation and accounting malpractices” levelled by Hindenburg Research, the U.S.- based short seller responded to conglomerate saying, “fraud cannot be obfuscated by nationalism”.

On January 29, in an extensive 413-page report, Adani Group had dismissed all allegations and termed the Hindenburg report as an “attack on India and its independent institutions”.

The Adani Group had said the report was “baseless” and “driven by an ulterior motive to create a false market” and allow the U.S. firm to make financial gains.

“This is not merely an unwarranted attack on any specific company but a calculated attack on India, the independence, integrity and quality of Indian institutions, and the growth story and ambition of India,” it had said.

Responding to these statement, the Hindenburg Research, earlier today morning said, the Group “predictably tried to lead the focus away from substantive issues and instead stoked a nationalist narrative.”

“In short, the Adani Group has attempted to conflate its meteoric rise and the wealth of its Chairman, Gautam Adani, with the success of India itself,” it added.

The HIndenburg group instead went on to allege that “India’s future is being  held back by the Adani Group, which has draped itself in the Indian flag while systematically looting the nation,” and stated that of the 413-page rebuttal, only “about 30 pages focused on issues related to our report.”

“The remainder of the response consisted of 330 pages of court records, along with 53 pages of high-level financials, general information,” it said.

The short-seller also said that while it had specifically raised 88 questions, the Adani Group had failed to specifically answer 62 of them. “Of the few questions it did answer, its responses largely confirmed our findings, as we detail,” it said.

“In other instances, Adani simply pointed to its own filings and declared the questions or relevant matters settled, again failing to substantively address the issues raised,” Hindenburg added.

Hindenburg’s original report has sparked a $51-billion sell-off in shares of the Adani group companies over two trading sessions.