The short seller report caused a $50 billion drop in the value of Gautam Adani’s company.
The short seller report caused a $50 billion drop in the value of Gautam Adani’s company. Since publishing a critical study accusing it of fraud by US short-selling company Hindenburg Research this week, the value of Gautam Adani’s business empire has plummeted by more than $50 billion.
Adani Group of India has called Hindenburg’s charges “baseless” and “malicious,” and the company is exploring legal action. A billionaire US investor named Bill Ackman, who runs a hedge fund, claimed on Friday that the short seller’s allegation was plausible, accelerating the rapid sell-off in shares that had begun on Wednesday.
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Hindenburg Research released their findings on Adani’s conglomerate late Tuesday, accusing it of “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over decades.” A short position in Adani Group companies was disclosed, suggesting the firm stands to gain from a decline in the value of those businesses.
On Wednesday, the Indian stock market started with a steep drop in the shares of those companies, some of which had risen by more than 500% in the previous few years. After a market holiday on Thursday, trade resumed on Friday, and the selling continued.
Adani Enterprises, the group’s leading company, had its stock drop 18% on Friday. In contrast, shares of Adani Transmission, Adani Total Gas, and Adani Green Energy, three of the group’s seven listed companies, plunged 20%. Nearly $39 billion in market value was lost on Friday.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Adani has a personal fortune of $113 billion, $30 billion more than fellow Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani. The gaps will narrow as a result of losses on Friday.
On Thursday, Hindenburg declared that it was sticking by its report and that any legal action against it was “meritless.”
If it is severe, Adani should also sue us in the United States, where we have a significant presence. During a legal discovery process, we would request many papers,” the short seller wrote on Twitter.
Adani has financed $30 billion to establish itself in logistics and mining businesses and is quickly expanding into other sectors, including media, data centers, airports, and cement. Hindenburg is one of many research groups to voice concern about Adani’s finances.
Ackman chimed in on the discussion Thursday, tweeting that the Hindenburg study was “very credible and incredibly well documented.”
Ackman further noted that his firm “has not invested long or short in any of the Adani entities” and had not conducted its investigation on the group.
These statements from Hindenburg are being made at a particularly delicate time. This month, Adani Enterprises plans to issue new shares to the public to raise 200 billion rupees ($2.5 billion). The deadline to submit an offer is Tuesday.
Adani is the fourth wealthiest person in the world, surpassing Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. He is a self-made industrialist who decided to attend college. He is also considered one of Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister closest,’s allies.
60-year-old tycoon Adani Adani began his company more than three decades ago.
