Adani-Hindenburg Row: Shares Of Adani Ent, Adani Ports Up 2% After SC Postpones Hearing

Adani-Hindenburg Row: Major stocks of Adani Group gained momentum after reports claimed that the Supreme Court is unlikely to hear the power-to-port empire's case over Hindenburg's allegations on Tuesday. A sharp surge has been witnessed in the top firms of the Group namely Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports and Adani Power. Other stocks trade on a mixed note. The most controversial case Adani-Hindeburg of recent times in the business world was due to be heard by the apex court after the market regulator Sebi's probe report.

At the time of writing, flagship firm Adani Enterprises (Rs 2,514.75 apiece), Adani Ports (Rs 822.60 apiece), and Adani Power (Rs 327.85 apiece) zoomed by nearly 2% each after the postponement in the SC hearing. On the other hand, Adani Green Energy and Adani Energy Solutions continued to trade in the red with a drop of 0.7% and 0.5% respectively. These are the top five stocks of Adani Group in terms of market capitalisation.

Meanwhile, Adani Total Gas was marginally up, and Adani Wilmar traded flat. Under the group's cement stocks, Ambuja Cements surged 0.6%, while ACC stock edged lower. Media stock, NDTV surged by half a per cent.

Gautam Adani's conglomerate came under the radar of the Supreme Court after Hindburg's staggering report on the group with various allegations. The short seller's report resulted in one of the most breathtaking market routs to the tune of more than $100 billion, and hence Sebi's investigation.

Adani-Hindenburg case is ongoing!

The case was scheduled to be heard by SC Tuesday as well. But as per the latest developments, the Chief Justice of India-led constitution bench is said to continue hearing pleas that are challenging abrogation of Article 370 on August 29, however, the court's hearing on the Adani-Hindenburg case is postponed. As per the reports, the apex court rescheduled the Adani-Hindenburg hearing.

But, the apex court did not release the date and time of next hearing.

The postponement is likely due to Sebi's final probe report which indicated that a dozen of foreign companies were situated in tax-haven countries which was challenging for the investigation.

While submitting its final report to SC last week, Sebi explained that since these foreign entities are situated in tax haven jurisdictions, it has become challenging to establish the economic interest of 12 FPIs shareholders. Hence, Sebi has sought information from five foreign countries to identify the true beneficiaries behind foreign investors that were dealing with Gautam Adani's group.

The regulator also said, it would take appropriate action based on the outcome of the investigations.

In its latest report that Sebi submitted, of the 24 investigations, 22 of them are final, while 2 are interim which revolves around the offshore dealings.

The market watchdog's investigation began in March after four public interest petitions were filed at the Supreme Court against Adani Group, demanding directions related to allegations made by Hindenburg against the billions of dollars worth conglomerate. The move was also initiated to come up with directions that could protect investors from such sensitive and severe routes.

Among a host of allegations, Hindenburg has shed some light on foreign investors dealing in Adani firms.

The short seller's report dated January 24, revealed that publicly listed companies in India are subject to rules that require all promoter holdings (known as insider holdings in the U.S.) to be disclosed. Rules also require that listed companies have at least 25% of the float held by non-promoters to mitigate manipulation and insider trading. 4 of Adani's listed companies are on the brink of the delisting threshold due to high promoter ownership.

Also, Hindenburg's report said, its research indicates that offshore shells and funds tied to the Adani Group comprise many of the largest "public" (i.e., non-promoter) holders of Adani stock, an issue that would subject the Adani companies to delisting, were Indian securities regulator SEBI's rules enforced

Adani family members allegedly cooperated to create offshore shell entities in tax-haven jurisdictions like Mauritius, the UAE, and the Caribbean Islands, generating forged import/export documentation in an apparent effort to generate fake or illegitimate turnover and to siphon money from the listed companies, it added,

Hindenburg released its research report on Adani Group in the late of January this year, after 2-years of investigations.

However, Adani Group has denied Hindenburg's allegations up to this date.