Companies owned by one of the world’s richest men — multi-billionaire Gautam Adani — and planning some of India’s most ambitious renewable energy and hydrogen projects have seen their stock market values plunge after being caught up in allegations of “brazen fraud” and “the largest con in corporate history”.
Adani Group companies have, over the last few days, lost more than $70bn between them, according to financial wire reports, putting a massive dent in the wealth of Adani himself, who was last year valued at more than $100bn and labelled “Asia's richest man”.
Adani Green Energy suffered a 20% fall on the Mumbai stock market on Monday, the most permitted under the exchanges rules, continuing a rout that began on Friday and swept across the listed companies of the Adani Group.
The fall was sparked by a report from a US forensic financial research company called Hindenburg Research, which conducted a two-year investigation into the conglomerate, claiming that it has engaged in “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud”.
Hindenburg Research was the company that revealed “an ocean of lies” at hydrogen- and electric-truck maker Nikola Motors in 2020, which led to its former CEO, Trevor Milton, being found guilty of fraud last October.
The Adani Group hit back aggressively on Sunday, issuing a rebuttal claiming that the Hindenburg report is designed to create a “false market” to enable profits by short-selling and branding it “a calculated attack on India”.
Hindenburg responded to the accusations by stating that “fraud cannot be obfuscated by nationalism”, that it believes India’s “exciting future... is being held back by the Adani Group, which has draped itself in the Indian flag while systematically looting the nation”.
Gautam Adani — who made a fortune in commodities trading in the late 1980s — has over the past two years set out Adani Group’s stall to be a leader of India’s energy transition, with plans to amass a 45GW renewable energy portfolio by 2030 and produce the world’s cheapest green H2.
Adani Green has huge ambitions in the solar sector in particular, and in December claimed to have become the world’s largest PV-wind hybrid developer after commissioning a total of 1.4GW.
Its Indian ambitions have included forging a partnership with French oil supermajor TotalEnergies that aims to create “the largest green hydrogen ecosystem in the world”.
Adani’s green expansion plans have run in parallel with those of fellow Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, which has made its own series of multi-billion-dollar forays into the energy transition.
