Hindenburg’s Report Hits The Bull Eye, Gautam Adani’s Group Value Halved, $120 Billion Disaster As Stocks Nosedive; Adani’s Fraud Cost India Its Reputation In The Global Arena.

Gautam Adani would have never envisioned a day would come when his stupendous rise to becoming Asia’s richest would be marred by one report —Hindenburg— has, with its spectacular accuracy, hit the man and his empire right where it would bleed the most.

The Indian stock markets are in a tizzy due to falling shares of Adani Enterprises.

This even as Billionaire Gautam Adani repudiated that his rise to become Asia’s richest man — a title that no longer is– was due to his proximity to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Adani Stocks….Create Choas

Adani’s listed units’ combined market capitalisation has crumpled by more than $120 billion, which equates to about half of the group’s value since US short-seller Hindenburg Research released its ‘tell all’ report on the inner workings and ‘secrets’ of Adani empire.

It accused Adani of ‘pulling the largest con in corporate history by pulling accounting fraud and artificially boosting its share prices.

First, ‘Its An Attack On India’ And Then Nowhere To Hide.

Once the Hindenburg report came out, Adani was quick to call the allegations as ‘baseless’ and that they were an ‘easy target’ and the government, too, was closed, not wanting to comment on the report.

In fact, Adani was as brazen to say that the report was an ‘attack on India’, trying to hide behind the country and gain some time and brownie points, but alas, this strategy did not work out for him at all!

India Suffers A Terrible Loss In The Eyes Of The World

• Adani’s Fall from grace has rekindled old doubts about the corporate governance of Indian Companies.

• It has threatened to undermine investor confidence in India, more importantly in the nation’s regulatory framework — SEBI?

• Things are moving at a tremendous pace in the market, with a potentially major reassessment of the risks of investing in Indian equities by international investors.

• Reassessment incorporates governance, corporate transparency, nepotism and indebtedness.

• If the slide in asset prices continues and further shakes investor confidence in Adani’s empire, that would be a setback for India’s growth story at a pivotal time. 

• Banks like HSBC Holdings Plc and companies like Apple Inc were considering expanding in India to hedge their exposure to China. Now, they are wary of the goings because of the Adani Groups’ debacle.

Shares On the Bombay Stock Exchange

His comments came as shares in his flagship firm Adani Enterprises, were repeatedly suspended on the Bombay Stock Exchange, hitting multiple trading stops on the way to falling by 30 per cent before paring losses.

Adani Power, Adani Green Energy, Adani Total Gas — in which French giant TotalEnergies has a 37.4 per cent stake — and Adani Transmission were also suspended when they hit their limits.

Fortune Lost But So Did India

Hours after pulling the share sale, Adani restated in a televised speech that the company’s fundamentals are strong, the balance sheet is healthy, and the decision won’t affect existing operations and future plans. 

The televised speech had him clad in traditional attire, and he signed off with two words at the end of his televised speech Thursday: “Jai Hind,” meaning “Victory to India.”  

How?

Firstly, after the can of worms has opened and the truth seems to have been the case here, then it is high time Adani stops creating further trouble and loss for India.

While he has seen his fortune plummet by tens of billions of dollars, dumping him out of the real-time Forbes rich list top 20, where he used to be third, several world indices like the dow jones and investment banks have also refused to hedge against Adani stocks. 

S&P Dow Jones Indices will remove Adani Enterprises from its sustainability indices.

Credit Suisse says it won’t accept Adani bonds as collateral.

Before the rout, his operations expanded at breakneck speed, with Adani Enterprises shares soaring more than 1,000 per cent over the past five years.

Conclusion: What has been but only said in whispers so as not to rock the boat of India’s so-called proxy of the nation’s development, the Adani’s– has turned into a circus where not only has it cost him everything, but it has cost India far more!