US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research has hit back at the Adani Group for calling its damning report a “calculated attack on India”, saying “fraud can’t be obfuscated by nationalism”.
Calling the port-to-energy conglomerate’s response to its report a “bloated response that ignores every key allegation” raised in the lengthy report, which it said, was prepared after reviewing thousands of documents.
On January 24, Hindenburg released a report, accusing the Adani Group of pulling the largest con in corporate history by way of stock manipulations and misuse of foreign tax havens. It raised 88 questions on the corporation functioning practices at Adani’s group of companies.
Days after, Adani released a detailed 413-page response, calling the research firm “Madoffs of Manhattan” and its report a “calculated attack on India”, its institutions and the India “growth story”.
On January 29, Hindenburg released another statement claiming that the Adani Group failed to “specifically answer 62 of 88 questions raised by it. “Instead, it mainly grouped questions together in categories and provided generalized deflections.”
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“It also predictably 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,” Hindenburg said.
“We disagree. To be clear, 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.”
The New York-based firm said the group failed to address the core allegations made in its report which focused on numerous suspect transactions with offshore entities.
In its lengthy rebuttal to the Hindenburg report, the Adani Group said the firm did not publish the report for “any altruistic reasons but purely out of selfish motives and in flagrant breach of applicable securities and foreign exchange laws”.
“The truth of the matter is that Hindenburg is an unethical short seller. A short seller in the securities market books gain from the subsequent reduction in prices of shares,” the conglomerate said.