Mumbai: Indian stock markets Wednesday tumbled after US based Hindenburg Research, which specialises in short selling, accused Adani Group of “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades”.
Sensex on Wednesday tumbled nearly 900 points at day's low while Bank Nifty tanked 2.3%.
Stocks of Adani group companies too fell sharply after Hindenburg Research in a report said it holds short positions in those firms through US-traded bonds and non-Indian-traded derivative instruments.
The Hindenburg report come two days before the group’s flagship Adani Enterprises follow-on public offer of Rs. 20,000 crore is scheduled to open for subscription on January 27.
The Adani Group meanwhile said that it is shocked that Hindenburg Research had published a report on January 24 without making any attempt to contact us or verify the factual matrix.
In a statement, Jugeshinder Singh, Group CFO, Adani, said the report is a malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations that have been tested and rejected by India's highest courts.
"The timing of the report's publication clearly betrays a brazen, mala fide intention to undermine the Adani Group's reputation with the principal objective of damaging the upcoming Follow-on Public Offering from Adani Enterprises, the biggest FPO ever in India," Singh said.
"The investor community has always reposed faith in the Adani Group on the basis of detailed analysis and reports prepared by financial experts and leading national and international credit rating agencies."
"Our informed and knowledgeable investors are not influenced by one-sided, motivated and unsubstantiated reports with vested interests," the Group said.
Hindenburg Research has a track-record of finding corporate wrongdoings and placing bets against the companies.
Founded in 2017 by Nathan Anderson, Hindenburg Research is a forensic financial research firm which analyses equity, credit and derivatives.
It looks for “man-made disasters,” such as accounting irregularities, mismanagement and undisclosed related-party transactions. The company invests its own capital, Hindenburg says on its website.
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