Adani Group Chairman and Founder Gautam Adani attends the News18 Rising India Summit on February 25, 2019 in Latest Delhi, India. Since becoming a billionaire in 2008, Adani is now one in all the richest people on the earth with a net value of $113 billion in line with the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Hindustan Times | Hindustan Times | Getty Images
Shares within the Adani group continued to fall sharply in India’s second trading session, after short trader Hindenburg announced its short position within the conglomerate’s corporations earlier this week.
In a comprehensive report released earlier this week, Hindenburg detailed multiple allegations against the conglomerate’s corporations, saying the group “engaged in brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud over the many years.”
Adani rejected the claims in two separate statements, describing the short seller’s claims as “a deliberate and reckless attempt by a foreign entity to mislead the investment community and the general public.”
“We’re evaluating the relevant provisions of US and Indian law regarding corrective and criminal actions against Hidenburg Research,” said Adani Group’s head of legal, Jatin Jalundhwala.
Mumbai-listed shares of Adani Enterprises fell greater than 9% during Friday’s trading session in India. Adani’s transmission decreased by 19.47%, Adani Green Energy it lost 19.89% and Adani Power lost 5%. Adani Port’s share price also fell 13.8%.
The moves come after Wednesday’s losses following the primary release of the Hindenburg report. The stock market in India was closed on Thursday.
The short-selling firm doubled down on its initial position after Adani’s responses, emphasizing that the conglomerate didn’t reply to any of the questions raised, adding that any lawsuits brought against Hindenburg could be “worthless.”
“If Adani is serious, he must also file a lawsuit in the USA where we operate. We’ve got a protracted list of documents that we might request within the legal discovery process,” he said.
“We fully stand by our report and imagine that any legal action taken against us could be without merit,” it said.
Billionaire investor and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, Bill Ackman, expressed his support for the firm selling shorts in a tweet posted shortly before the opening of the Indian market.
“I find the Hindenburg report highly credible and thoroughly researched,” he wrote, adding that the Adani Group’s response “says loads.”
“Caveat emptor,” he added.
$2.5 billion stock offering
The most recent exchange between Asia’s richest man, Gautama Adani’s group, and short-trade firm comes as Adani Enterprises launched a bid by retail investors on Friday for a 200 billion rupees ($2.45 billion) secondary stock offering.
The corporate last week set a reserve bid price of Rs 3,112 per share, with a price cap of Rs 3,276 per share, in line with sawing.
Reuters reported that anchor investors, institutions that were allotted shares at a set price prior to the general public opening of the offer, made share offers value 90 billion rupees and that Malaysia’s Maybank received greater than 34% of the shares reserved for institutional investors, while the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority went up by 2, 56%.
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Since becoming a billionaire in 2008, Adani is now one in all the richest people on the earth with a net value of $113 billion, in line with Bloomberg Billionaire Index. The index showed that his net value fell by about $7 billion over the 12 months.
Last August, the corporate sought a hostile takeover of Indian media group NDTV, which in a filing said the move was “conducted without the consent” of its founders.