Adani-Hindenburg case: SC to hear pleas on ‘conspiracy that tarnished India’

On Friday, the Supreme Court will hear two public interest litigations (PILs) seeking a court-monitored investigation into the ‘conspiracy’ of short-seller Hindenburg Research against the Adani Group. The PILs – filed by advocates ML Sharma and Vishal Tiwari – claim United States-based Hindenburg short-sold Adani stocks and caused a ‘monumental loss to investors’.

“The report has tarnished image of (the) country. It is affecting the economy…” Tiwari stated this in his petition. Sharma’s petition claimed that the report’s media coverage had influenced market sentiment, and that Hindenburg founder Nathan Anderson had failed to provide proof of his claims to Indian regulator SEBI.

Hindenburg’s report, which alleges “brazen accounting fraud… stock manipulation” by the Gautam Adani-led group, has sparked a massive backlash, with the opposition blaming the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party for alleged links between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government and Adani.

Meanwhile, Adani Group is planning to prepay a $500 million loan due next month to a group of foreign banks including Barclays Plc and Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank AG, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

On Monday Adani Group posted the amounts to prepay $1.1 billion of the share-backed facility of its maturity of September 2024.

Shares of Adani Group companies gained sharply on Wednesday.