Our Bureau
Mumbai
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the stock market regulator of India this Thursday, on September 18th, has given a clean chit to Gautam Adani and Adani group companies over the allegations by US based short seller Hindenburg Research. SEBI stated that there was no evidence against the group for using related parties to route funds to the listed companies.
SEBI posted two orders on its website that highlighted that they do not see any violations of listing agreement or Sebi regulations. They stated that the impugned transactions that were provided do not qualify as “related party transactions”.
Gautam Adani, the founder and chairman of Adani Group, reacted to this big news on his social media account. Adani wrote on X, “After an exhaustive investigation, Sebi has reaffirmed what we have always maintained, that Hindenburg claims were baseless. Transparency and integrity have always defined the Adani Group.”
The stock market regulator has revealed that the findings of the investigation pointed out that Adani Ports transferred funds as loan to Adicorp Enterprises, which in turn transferred funds as loans to Adani Power. Subsequently, Adani Power repaid the loans to Adicorp Enterprises along with interest which in turn repaid the loans to Adani Ports with interest.
“Thus loans were given and repaid with interest in various tranches during the investigation period,” the regulator said.
The whole controversy began when Hindenburg Research dropped a bombshell on one of the biggest businesses in India, Adani Group, with a report on January 24, 2023. The report put up allegations on the Adani Group stating they used Adicorp Enterprises, Milestone Tradelinks and Rehvar Infrastructure as conduit entities so that they could route funds from various Adani Group companies to publicly listed companies such as Adani Power and Adani Enterprises.
