In another blow to the embattled Adani Group, the S&P Dow Jones Indices has announced to remove Adani Enterprises from its sustainability indices before February 7.
“Adani Enterprises will be removed from the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices following a media stakeholder analysis triggered by allegations of stock manipulation and accounting fraud,” the S&P Dow Jones Indices said in a brief statement.
This is the latest in setbacks to the Adani Group triggered by a damning report published by a US-based activist finance research company on January 24.
In its report, Hindenburg Research, a short-seller, accused the Adani Group of “pulling the largest con in corporate history”.
The Dow Jones Sustainability Indices serve as benchmarks for investors who “integrate sustainability considerations into their portfolios,” according to the S&P Global website.
The indices are designed to serve as an “effective engagement platform for investors who wish to encourage companies to improve their corporate sustainability practices.”
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The indices rank companies in 61 sectors, giving them scores based on their responses to questionnaires known as the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment.
Meanwhile, Swiss bank Credit Suisse and US-based lender Citigroup have stopped disbursing loans to companies of the Adani Group.
As per reports, Credit Suisse and Citigroup have halted accepting securities of billionaire Gautam Adani’s group of companies as collateral for margin loans as banks launched scrutiny of the Indian conglomerate’s finances in the backdrop of the Hindenburg Research report.
The report has caused losses running into over USD100 billion to the Adani Group as free fall in their stocks continues, bringing Gautam Adani to 16th place from the third in the Forbes list of the world’s richest individuals.
At the time of the publication of the report, Adani’s assets were pegged at around USD120 billion, which has now plunged to USD56.7 billion as of Friday.
The report claimed that Adani amassed USD100 billion of his wealth in the last three years even as the countrymen suffered economic woes caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Shares of the listed Adani Group companies shot up by an average of 819 per cent during that period.
“Key listed Adani companies have also taken on substantial debt, including pledging shares of their inflated stock for loans, putting the entire group on precarious financial footing,” the firm said, adding that it published the report a 2-year investigation.
The Adani Group has announced to sue the US firm for its “maliciously mischievous, unresearched” report. “We are evaluating the relevant provisions under US and Indian laws for remedial and punitive action against Hindenburg Research,” the group said on January 26.