At the annual general meeting of Adani Enterprises on Tuesday, billionaire Gautam Adani praised the prospects for growth in both India and his corporate empire while criticizing an earlier attack on his troubled conglomerate by US-based short seller Hindenburg Research.
Tycoon listed aggressive expansion goals for his ports, energy, and infrastructure companies while adamantly telling shareholders to ignore the criticism.
Indian billionaire Gautam Adani responded to the January allegations made by US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research on Tuesday. He claimed that the study was made up of a combination of disproven claims and targeted misinformation by special interests.
Adani said that the purpose of the study was to harm the conglomerate’s reputation and make money by causing its stock prices to fall. In order to protect investors’ interests, we ultimately chose to refund the money to them despite a fully subscribed FPO.
Many entrenched interests targeted us when we made our answer, Adani claimed.
Adani was speaking digitally at the Adani Enterprises annual general meeting. Upon publishing a damaging report in January accusing Adani Group of accounting fraud and stock price manipulation, US short-seller Hindenburg Research set off a stock market meltdown that, at its worst, destroyed roughly USD 145 billion from the conglomerate’s market worth.
Adani Group has refuted all of Hindenburg’s accusations and is preparing a comeback strategy. It involves redefining its goals, abandoning acquisitions, paying off debt in advance to allay worries about its cash flows and borrowings, and slowing down the pace at which it invests in new projects.
According to NSDL statistics, Adani Enterprises raised the additional debt by pledging 21.4% of the company’s shares in Adani Road Transport.
During the September 2022 bond offering, it committed 1.95 percent of the shares of Adani Road Transport.
Bloomberg, a news source, reported on Tuesday that Barclays Plc plans to reduce its exposure to the business.
According to those familiar with the situation, top executives are scrutinizing their relationships with Adani and becoming more wary about taking on new clients while a regulatory investigation, which is meant to be completed next month, is ongoing.
Barclays hasn’t ruled out doing business with the organization, but it has negotiated loan payback on occasion, including financing for a sizable cement contract with Holcim AG last year, the article said, quoting sources.
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