With Hindenburg, Adani Faces His Stiffest Challenge Yet https://thewire.in/business/with-hindenburg-adani-faces-his-stiffest-challenge-yet
What does the short-seller’s report mean for Adani’s plans to grow through international bonds?
With growth, the group’s borrowing strategy has changed. By 2019, it had begun looking beyond domestic banks, tapping funds from overseas, mostly in the form of bonds, instead....
As Bloomberg columnist Andy Mukherjee wrote: “If Hindenburg is right, then a network of shadowy operators… is exerting outsize influence over India’s markets from overseas in cahoots with corporate honchos back home.”
This process has gone unchallenged by India’s regulators. This abdication in duty is seen in other parts of India’s capital markets architecture as well. Take the now-disgraced Brickwork Ratings. It normalised Adani’s use of borrowed funds as equity...
Weak regulation has allowed Adani to grow unchecked. But now, poor regulators – and the company’s own decisions – have also created room for the entry of a short-seller who thinks the company’s shares are overvalued by 85%.
https://scroll.in/article/923095/from-2014-to-2019-how-the-adani-groups-footprint-expanded-across-india In September and October 2018, the Modi government awarded 126 contracts to firms to set up and operate piped natural gas networks and fuel stations across India. These bids were notable for three reasons. First, the number of contracts given out in these two months was significantly higher than those given in the previous nine years – 35 contracts under the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government, and 63 contracts under the Modi government until then. Second, the government put these contracts up for bidding even though the networks for transporting gas to these cities and districts are still not in place. ... These gas contracts are part of a larger pattern of growth for the Gautam Adani-led infrastructure conglomerate. One part of the expansion has come through acquisitions.