Billionaire Gautam Adani reiterates confidence in governance standards

By P R Sanjai and Rakesh Sharma

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani reiterated that his ports-to-power conglomerate remains confident in its governance and disclosure standards five months on from damaging allegations published by shortseller Hindenburg Research.
 

The Adani Group chairman, commenting in the annual report of flagship firm Adani Enterprises Ltd. released on Tuesday, pointed to a submission last month by India’s Supreme Court appointed panel of experts, which found no regulatory failure or signs of stock price manipulation.

“The committee’s report not only observed that the mitigating measures, undertaken by your company helped rebuild confidence but also cited that there were credible charges of concerted destabilization of the Indian markets,” the tycoon wrote. While India’s capital markets regulator “is still to submit its report in the months ahead,” he said, “we remain confident of our governance and disclosure standards.”

Adani’s commentary is part of a wider effort to rebuild investor trust after US-based Hindenburg accused his eponymous conglomerate of widespread corporate malfeasance in January. The Adani Group has consistently denied the allegations. Prior to the broadside — which at one point wiped out more than $150 billion in the group’s market value — Adani stocks were on a years-long runaway rally, vaulting the tycoon into second-place in Bloomberg’s Billlionaires Index.

US authorities, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, are also looking into what representations Adani Group made to its American investors, Bloomberg News reported last week. The company said it isn’t aware of any subpoena to US investors and that it was confident that disclosures were “full and complete.”

In a seperate annual report, Adani Total Gas Ltd. said it has plans to invest up to 200 billion rupees ($2.4 billion) within 10 years to build urban gas distribution infrastructure. Adani Enterprises also stated that the “next generation of its strategic investments” will be focused on “new energy,” as well as data centers, airport management, water and road infrastructure.