Adani Group stocks witnessed buying interest on Tuesday as its chairman Gautam Adani, in his address to shareholders during the Annual General Meeting, reaffirmed the group’s strong financial position to restore investor confidence, while accusing the US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research of maligning the company’s reputation.
In January this year, Hindenburg published a report alleging that the Adani Group was carrying out the ‘largest con in corporate history,’ and accused the group of ‘brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades,’ along with ‘improper use of offshore tax havens’. It also flagged concerns about high debt that sent the Group stocks to crash.
The fallout of the Hindenburg report on Adani group stocks was sharp, which at one point wiped out more than $150 billion of the group’s market value.
Also Read: Adani Power to Adani Enterprises: Adani Group shares zoom after Gautam Adani's speech at AGM 2023
Since hitting their lows in February and March after the Hindenburg report was released, shares of Adani group companies have seen decent recovery, but are still way below the pre-Hindenburg saga levels.
Adani Enterprises shares have recovered around 146%, while Adani Ports & SEZ shares have rallied 90% from their respective 52-week lows.
Adani Green Energy has surged 132%, Adani Power gained 92%, Adani Transmission rose 28%, while Adani Wilmar gained 26% from their lows seen after the Hindenburg report.
Meanwhile, Adani Total Gas shares have only risen by 6.4% from lows and are trading around ₹650 level as compared to its 52-week high of ₹3,998.35 hit on January 23, 2023.
The rise in Adani group stocks comes particularly on the back of the investment it received from GQG Partners, and an interim report from the Supreme Court-appointed committee that said it found no evidence of stock-price manipulation.
Also Read: Adani Group AGM 2023: Gautam Adani takes a dig at Hindenburg research report. Read full text here
Before the US short seller report was released, Gautam Adani was listed by Forbes as Asia's richest man. However, with the massive beating in the group stocks in the wake of the report, his ranking tumbled down, with his fortune at one point dropping by more than $100 billion.
Hitting back at the short-seller, Adani on Tuesday said the report was a deliberate and malicious attempt aimed at damaging the group’s reputation and generating profits through a short-term drive-down of our stock prices.
“This year, a US-based short- seller published a report to short our stocks just as we were planning to launch the largest Follow-on Public Offering in India’s history,” Adani said without naming the Nathan Anderson-founded Hindenburg.
“The report was a combination of targeted misinformation and discredited allegations, the majority of them dating from 2004 to 2015. They were all settled by the appropriate authorities at that time,” Adani said while speaking at the AGM of his group companies.
Adani reiterated that the group’s balance sheet, assets and operating cashflows continued to get stronger and were now healthier than ever before.
“It is worth noting that even during this crisis – not only did we raise several billions from international investors – but also that – no credit agency – in India or abroad – cut any of our ratings. This is the strongest validation of the belief that the investors have in your company’s governance and capital allocation practices,” Adani told shareholders.
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