A Year Of Hindenburg Report: Why Will Adani Shares Be On Investors Watchlist Tomorrow (Jan 24, 2024)

Adani shares will remain on investors' radar on Wednesday as it was on January 24, 2023 that the US Short seller Hindenburg Research leveled serious allegations of corporate malpractice against the Gautam Adani-led Indian conglomerate. It was on this last year, that the shares of Adani group companies dealt a severe blow and it took the group companies almost a year to recover from those losses, though not completely.

Though, the Gautam Adani-led group strongly denied the allegations and called them baseless, but the controversy wiped off nearly Rs 12 lakh crore of investor wealth.

One year down the line, two of the 10 Adani stocks - Adani Ports and Adani Power - are trading at a level higher level than they were before the report was published. Some have stabilized, while a few are yet to recover from the firestorm.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, on Monday, Gautam Adani's net worth surged by $ 4.08 billion i.e. Rs 33,900 crore in one single day. This is the highest jump in net worth on Monday among the world's richest people. In 2024, there has been a significant increase in Adani's net worth so far. Gautam Adani's wealth has risen by $9.90 billion i.e. Rs 822.59 billion so far in 2024. This is the highest rise in the wealth of any billionaire in the world this year. As of today, Gautam Adani has a net worth of $94.2 billion.

Performance of Adani stocks in the last one year:

Shares of three Adani stocks - Adani Power, Adani Ports & SEZ , and Ambuja Cement have gained 89.64%, 47.88%, and 4.90% respectively in the last one year.

The last one year returns for other Adani group companies including Adani Enterprises, Adani Energy Solutions, and Adani Green Energy Ltd are down 15.64%, 62.05%, 12.92%respectively.

Shares of Adani Total Gas have fallen 74.43% in the last one year.

In the last one year, shares of Adani Wilmar, ACC, and NDTV have declined 35.62%, 4.95%, and 7.56% respectively.

SC On Adani-Hindenburg Row:

Earlier this year, in a big relief to Adani group chairman Gautam Adani, the Supreme Court refused to order an SIT probe into allegations leveled by the US Short-seller Hindenburg Research against the Gautam Adani-led Indian conglomerate. While announcing its verdict on a batch of petitions seeking examination of allegations of fraud made against Adani group firms in the Hindenburg Research report the apex court dismissed reliance on a third-party report and affirmed faith in SEBI's handling of the case. The SC said that there are no valid grounds to direct the regulator to regulate its amendments made in the exercise of delegated legislative powers.

While some see the top court order as a clean chit to the Adani Group, however, the ball is now in Sebi's court as it is yet to complete its investigation in the case. SEBI has completed 22 out of the 24 investigations into the allegations leveled by the Hindenburg Report against the Adani group. The apex court has now asked SEBI to complete the rest two pending investigations preferably within the next 3 months.