Winning Bizness Desk

Mumbai. The Adani group is once again under the scanner and this time American investor Hindenburg Research has said that the group has been involved in stock manipulation and account fraud for decades. The report comes ahead of the Rs 20,000 crore follow-on public offer (FPO) of Adani Enterprises that will open on January 27 and close on January 31. Notably, Adani Group founder Gautam Adani's wealth has increased by roughly $100 billion to $120 billion in the last three years, the report said. During this period, the shares of seven major companies of the group have increased by an average of 819 percent. However, after the allegations, the shares of Adani's companies fell heavily and due to this, there was a decrease of Rs 97 thousand crore in their market capitalization. The market capitalization of Adani's 11 companies was Rs 19.20 lakh crore on Tuesday, which came down to Rs 18.23 lakh crore on Wednesday.

Web of multiple shell companies

The report details a web of multiple shell companies controlled by the Adani family in tax evasion countries stretching from the Caribbean and Mauritius to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which it claims are used to promote corruption, money laundering and taxpayer evasion. Along with this, the group's fund was also misappropriated. The report claimed that efforts have also been made to cover up the nature of some shell companies. It said that if you ignore our research report and look at the valuation of its seven core companies, they are 85 per cent below their valuation on a fundamental basis. These companies have taken loans largely by pledging shares and this has put the entire group in a precarious financial position.Earlier on June 14, 2021, a report said that the depository has frozen the investment of some foreign investors in the company. After this report, the shares of Adani group companies fell by more than 50 percent.

Adani group rubishes the report

Following this report, Adani Group said that it was not contacted to get factual data. The report is a malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and slanderous allegations. It has been rejected by the Supreme Courts of India. The coming of this report before the FPO clearly shows a mala fide intention to malign the reputation of the group with an aim to harm it.