Hindenburg Research took jabs at Adani group on Monday reiterating its allegations that the Indian conglomerate is a fraud after the Gautam Adani-led firm’s 413-page response to the short seller’s original research report. Adani’s response had said that the Hindenburg report is a “calculated attack” on India, its institutions and growth story, and that the allegations are “nothing but a lie”. Hindenburg in its response to Adani’s response said that the conglomerate, “tried to lead the focus away from substantive issues and instead stoked a nationalist narrative, claiming our report amounted to a “calculated attack on India.” 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.”
Disagreeing with Adani‘s claim that the report is an attack on India, Hindenburg said, “we believe India is a vibrant democracy and an emerging superpower with an exciting future. We also believe India’s future is being held back by the Adani Group, which has draped itself in the Indian flag while systematically looting the nation. We also believe that fraud is fraud, even when it’s perpetrated by one of the wealthiest individuals in the world.” The short seller claimed that even in the 413-page response, Adani group largely either confirmed or attempted to sidestep their findings. “Our report asked 88 specific questions of the Adani Group. In its response, Adani failed to specifically answer 62 of them. Instead, it mainly grouped questions together in categories and provided generalized deflections,” it said.
The short seller further said that Adani Group’s response to its report “largely confirmed” its findings. Hindenburg continues to short Adani Group through its US-traded bonds and non-Indian-traded derivative instruments. “…we note that the core allegations of our report – focused on numerous suspect transactions with offshore entities – were left completely unaddressed,” Hindenburg said.
The research firm also stated that it presented extensive evidence that Vinod Adani’s offshore shell entities have been used for stock parking/stock manipulation or engineering Adani’s accounting. “Many of our questions were focused on both the nature of these transactions and the lack of disclosure around the clear conflicts of interest involved. In its response, Adani did not seem to dispute the existence of these transactions and made no effort to explain their obvious irregularities,” it said.
Hindenburg Research in its reponse also called Adani’s lack of direct and transparent answers to questions regarding the source of billions of dollars that have flowed from Vinod Adani-associated offshore shell entities through the Adani Group very ‘telling’. It said Adani’s response claimed ignorance as it stated that the group is neither aware nor required to be aware of their ‘source of funds’. The group also added that it is “not in a position to comment on…allegations on the business dealings and transactions of Vinod Adani. “In other words, we are expected to believe that Gautam Adani has no idea why his brother Vinod lent massive sums of money to Adani entities, and no idea where the money originated from,” Hindenburg said, adding that these explanations simply defy common sense.