US-based firm Hindenburg Research on Saturday posted a cryptic message hinting at a possible new India-centric report, over a year after it published allegations against the Adani group of companies of insider trading and other violations in the stock market.
“Something big soon India,” said the post on the X social media account of Hindenburg Research.
In January 2023, Hindenburg published a report accusing the Adani Group of financial irregularities, leading to a significant drop in the company’s stock price. The group at the time had rubbished these claims.
The Hindenburg report alleged stock manipulation and fraud by the conglomerate. The case is related to the allegations (part of a report by short-seller Hindenburg Research) that Adani had inflated its share prices. After these allegations were published, it led to a sharp fall in the shares of various Adani group companies stocks, reportedly to the tune of over $100 billion.
The US short seller’s report was published two days before a $2.5 billion follow-up public offering was issued by Adani Enterprises.
The Adani group has repeatedly denied all the accusations in the Hindenburg Research report.
In July this year, one of India’s senior most lawyer and BJP leader Mahesh Jethmalani has alleged that a US-based businessman with Chinese links had commissioned the report by Hindenburg Research, which led to a significant drop in the Adani group companies shares in January-February 2023.
Jethmalani claimed that Mark Kingdon, the American businessman behind Kingdon Capital Management LLC, had hired Hindenburg Research to prepare a report on the Adani Group.
Jethmalani in a social media post on X in July this year has alleged that “spy” Anla Cheng and her husband Mark Kingdon hired Hindenburg Research to prepare a report on Adani group companies. The senior lawyer further said that they used Kotak Mahindra Investments Limited (KMIL) to set up a trading account for short-selling Adani shares and make profits in millions at the cost of Indian retail investors.
Later Mahesh Jethmalani also called on the government to probe the links of political voices, who sought to target the Adani group after the Hindenburg report, with China.
He flagged Chinese hand behind the report by the American short seller Hindenburg that targeted the Indian conglomerate. He added that the hit job on the Adani group was Chinese vengeance for losing out on the infrastructure projects like the Haifa Port.
Earlier, the Supreme Court of India had also given a clean chit to Adani group on Hindenburg charges after SEBI’s report on the allegations. Recently the apex court has dismissed a review petition to constitute a court-monitored Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the Adani-Hindenburg issue.
In June this year, while addressing the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Adani Enterprises, Group Chairman Gautam Adani said they were “faced with baseless accusations made by a foreign short seller, that questioned our decades of hard work.”
“In the face of an unprecedented attack on our integrity and reputation, we fought back and proved that no challenge could weaken the foundations on which your Group has been established” he told the gathering.