Adani Group Accused of Looting India While Draping Itself in the Flag: Hindenburg Research Response

Adani Group, one of India’s largest conglomerates led by Gautam Adani, has been criticized by Hindenburg Research in response to the firm’s 413-page reply to allegations of fraud made by the research firm. In its reply, Hindenburg accuses Adani of not answering questions and looting India while hiding behind the Indian flag.

In its original research report, Hindenburg accused the Adani Group of being a fraud and the firm’s 413-page response rejected the allegations, calling them a “calculated attack” on India and its institutions. However, Hindenburg was not satisfied with Adani’s response and took jabs at the firm in its reply. The research firm accused Adani of trying to deflect from substantive issues and conflating the wealth of its chairman, Gautam Adani, with the success of India itself.

Hindenburg disagreed with Adani’s claim that the report was an attack on India, saying that it believed India was a vibrant democracy and an emerging superpower with a bright future. The short seller also claimed that Adani failed to specifically answer 62 of the 88 specific questions it asked in its original report. Instead, Adani grouped questions together in categories and provided generalized deflections.

Hindenburg continues to short Adani Group through its US-traded bonds and non-Indian-traded derivative instruments. The research firm stated that the core allegations in its report focused on numerous suspect transactions with offshore entities, were left unaddressed by Adani. The firm also presented evidence that Vinod Adani’s offshore shell entities have been used for stock parking and stock manipulation or engineering Adani’s accounting. However, Adani made no effort to explain these obvious irregularities, according to Hindenburg.

The research firm called Adani’s lack of direct and transparent answers to questions about the source of billions of dollars that have flowed from Vinod Adani-associated offshore shell entities through the Adani Group very telling. Adani claimed ignorance and stated that the group is neither aware nor required to be aware of the source of funds. Hindenburg responded by saying that these explanations defied common sense and that it was expected to believe that Gautam Adani had no idea why his brother Vinod lent massive sums of money to Adani entities or where the money came from.