Topline
India’s Adani Group has hired New York-based law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to support allegations brought against it by short seller Hindenburg Research, the FinancialTimes reportedas shares of the group’s listed companies continued to slide in the Indian stock market on Friday.
Art school teacher Sagar Kambli puts the finishing touches on a painting of Indian businessman Gautam Adani … [+]
Highlights
According THE FinancialTimesWatchell will work on the Adani Group’s “legal, regulatory and public relations” response to the fraud allegations raised against it by Hindenburg late last month.
Watchell was first approached by Indian law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, which represents the Adani Group and is run by founder Gautam Adani’s son-in-law, Cyril Shroff, the report adds.
Late Thursday, index provider Morgan Stanley Capital International moved to reduce the weighting of four Adani Group companies, including flagship Adani Enterprises, on its closely watched indexes. following a notice.
In its announcement, MSCI said it determined that “certain investor characteristics present sufficient uncertainty” that triggered a reassessment of the total number of Adani shares freely traded by international investors.
On Thursday, Hindenburg Research founder Nate Anderson said validates the short seller’s claims of “offshore storage” by the conglomerate.
Shares of publicly traded companies in the Adani Group were again hit by a selloff on Friday, with flagship Adani Enterprises falling more than 3% in afternoon trading.
Forbes Valuation
According to our estimates, Gautam Adani current net worth stands at $58.2 billion – down nearly $7 billion in the past 24 hours –doing it the 22nd richest person in the world. Adani has seen his fortune plummet by more than 50% since Hindenburg’s allegations were made public in the last week of January.
Key context
Last month, Hindenburg disclosed a short position against the listed companies of the Adani Group and issued a report accusing them of engaging in “brazen stock manipulation and [an] accounting fraud scheme over the decades. The company has vehemently denied the allegations, calling them “harmful” and an attack on India and its institutions. The crisis surrounding the company spilled over into India’s parliament this week with opposition leader Rahul Gandhi reprimand Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his longstanding close ties with Adani.
Further reading
Adani engages US legal powerhouse Wachtell in short-seller battle (FinancialTimes)
How Gautam Adani lost over $60 billion in just 10 days and his ranking as the richest in Asia (Forbes)