Hindenburg says Adani has been 'systematically looting' India as the conglomerate accuses the short-seller of `conflict of interest'
- Hindenburg Research hit back at Adani Sunday, after the Indian group said the short seller's report was an "attack on India".
- "India's future is being held back by the Adani Group, which has draped itself in the Indian flag while systematically looting the nation," the short-seller said.
Hindenburg Research has fired back at Adani Group, saying that the Indian conglomerate has been "systematically looting the nation" despite claiming to act in the country's best interests.
The short seller released a statement Sunday where it addressed Adani's allegation that it was engaged in an "attack on India" and slammed the Indian energy-to-infrastructure conglomerate's chairman Gautam Adani, the world's seventh-richest person.
"The Adani Group has attempted to conflate its meteoric rise and the wealth of its chairman, Gautam Adani, with the success of India itself," Hindenburg said.
"To be clear, we believe India is a vibrant democracy and an emerging superpower with an exciting future. We also believe India's future is being held back by the Adani Group, which has draped itself in the Indian flag while systematically looting the nation."
Hindenburg and Adani are in the middle of a high-profile spat after the short-seller released a report last week that said the Indian group had engaged in a "brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades."
Adani issued a 413-page response where it said Hindenburg was attacking India and that the report was "rife with conflict of interest and intended only to create a false market in securities to enable Hindenburg, an admitted short seller, to book massive financial gain".
"Hindenburg has not published this report for any altruistic reasons but purely out of selfish motives and in flagrant breach of applicable securities and foreign exchange laws," the Adani report added.
Hindenburg responded to that by saying that "despite Adani's failure to identify any such laws, this is another serious accusation that we categorically deny."
"In terms of substance, Adani's '413 page' response only included about 30 pages focused on issues related to our report," it added.
"The remainder of the response consisted of 330 pages of court records, along with 53 pages of high-level financials, general information, and details on irrelevant corporate initiatives, such as how it encourages female entrepreneurship and the production of safe vegetables."
Adani didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.