As the Hindenburg-Adani controversy rages on, businessman Anand Mahindra has urged everyone to ‘never ever bet against India’. The Mahindra Group chairman has so far refrained from commenting directly on the allegations levelled by last month's Hindenburg report. Mahindra is very active on his social media handle and often shares post on off-beat topics, successful, inspiring stories.
“Global media is speculating whether current challenges in the business sector will trip India’s ambitions to be a global economic force. I’ve lived long enough to see us face earthquakes, droughts, recessions, wars, terror attacks. All I will say is: never, ever bet against India,” Mahindra wrote.
The remarks came amid speculative reports that the allegations (and subsequent rout) would dent India's developmental goals and its global standing. Earlier this week, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had asserted that the the country's “macroeconomic fundamentals or our economy's image” remained unaffected.
Also Read: Adani news LIVE
US short seller Hindenburg Research in a report on January 24 had published a report on Adani Group accusing it of improper use of offshore tax havens and flagging concerns about high debt that sent the Group stocks to crash.
The group holds short positions in Adani group companies. Hindenburg Research said evidence that the Group has engaged in a 'brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades.' The Hindenburg Research said that the seven listed companies of the Adani group, have an 85% downside on a fundamental basis due to sky-high valuations, Hindenburg said in the report.
Soon after the report was released, The market capitalisation of Adani Group companies was lowered by almost ₹1 lakh crore as a result of a significant stock market correction. Next day, as trading restarted, Adani Group companies continued to lose money, bringing the two-day market capitalisation decrease to ₹4 lakh crore.
Over $110 billion was wiped out from 10 companies, including the flagship Adani Enterprises, related to Adani Group. Finance Secretary TV Somanathan called the fall in Adani Group's shares a "storm in a teacup" from a macroeconomic perspective.
Recently, Gautam Adani, once “India’s richest man", was pushed off the list of the top-10 richest in the world. Mukesh Ambani surpassed his rival and entered the top-10 list.
Earlier on 3 February, the outlooks on Adani Group’s credit scores were slashed to negative by S&P Global Ratings as investors grow concerned about potential governance risks and funding challenges. Prior to this, Moody’s Investors Service cited similar concerns about Adani’s ability to raise capital or refinance maturing debt in coming years. Fitch Ratings said it expects no material changes to Adani Group’s forecast cash flow and noted that there aren’t significant offshore bond maturities in the near term.
As of Indian politicians are concerned, various opposition parties on raised questions over Adani issue in Parliament. They have demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe or a Supreme Court-monitored Committee investigation into it. TMC MP Mahua Moitra too have repeatedly raised questions on the firm. Senior advocate and BJP Rajya Sabha member Mahesh Jethmalani on Friday asked what the Narendra Modi government has to do with the Hindenburg-Adani issue.
"What does the government have to do with this? Nobody has said what the government's role is in this. LIC (Life Insurance Corporation) is an independent organisation. They have decided to make some investments," he had told news agency PTI.
Meanwhile, Adani's former lawyer and ex-solicitor general of India Harish Salve recently claimed that nobody was happy with the way Indian businessmen were making their presence felt at a global level.
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