Hindenburg 2.0: Adani rejects OCCRP's report on its brazen stock manipulation

HYDERABAD: Adani group on Thursday rejected the report published in the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project(OCCRP) titled “Documents Provide Fresh Insight Into Allegations of Stock Manipulation That Rocked India’s Powerful Adani Group ‘Brazen Stock Manipulation’.

The report was considered as a follow-up of the American short-seller Hindenburg’s scintillating report on Adani, led to a stock market mayhem for the group.

The report attributed the Adani Group’s raise from under USD 8 billion in market capitalization in September 2013, the year before Modi became prime minister, to USD 260 billion last year, to manipulation and insider trading.

Key findings of the report included huge investments by two foreigners Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli and Chang Chung-Ling, who had close ties to the Adani family. It was reported that they also appeared as directors and shareholders in affiliated companies.

Records also showed that the investment funds they used to trade in Adani Group stock received instructions from a company controlled by a senior member of the Adani family.

Adani refutes allegations

On allegations of OCCRP, Adani Group says "We categorically reject these recycled allegations. These news reports appear to be yet another concerted bid by Soros-funded interests supported by a section of the foreign media to revive the meritless Hindenburg report. In fact, this was anticipated, as was reported by the media last week. These claims are based on closed cases from a decade ago when the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) probed allegations of over-invoicing, transfer of funds abroad, related party transactions and investments through FPIs."

An independent adjudicating authority and an appellate tribunal had both confirmed that there was no over-valuation and that the transactions were in accordance with applicable law, the statement said.

“The matter attained finality in March 2023 when the Supreme Court of India ruled in our favour. Clearly, since there is no over-valuation, there is no relevance or foundation for these allegations on transfer of funds,” the statement reads.

Notably, these FPIs were already part of the investigation by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). As per the Expert Committee appointed by the Supreme Court, there was no evidence of any breach of the Minimum Public Shareholding (MPS) requirements or manipulation of stock prices.

“It is unfortunate that these publications, which sent us queries, chose not to carry our response in full. These attempts are aimed at, inter alia, generating profits by driving down our stock prices and these short sellers are under investigation by various authorities. As the Supreme Court and SEBI are overseeing these matters, it is vital to respect the ongoing regulatory process. We have complete faith in the due process of law and remain confident of the quality of our disclosures and corporate governance standards,” the Adani Group said.

In light of these facts, the timing of these news reports was suspicious, mischievous, and malicious and we reject these reports in their entirety, the Adani Group said in its statement.