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The Adani group went through a detailed investigation by SEBI. But what about investigating the Hindenburg group?

The Supreme court threw out the petition for further investigation of the Adani group by a Special Investigation Team, based on the George Soros backed OCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting) report.

The Court found the SEBI investigation into 22 of the 24 allegations of the Hindenburg report to be sufficient to give a clean chit to the Adani group.

To recollect, the Hindenburg report had halted further capital raise by the Adani group and it crashed its stocks by about USD 120 billion. It impacted the pace at which India was rolling out energy and logistics infrastructure in the country as well as globally.

It is now clear from the SEBI investigations that there was no basis for the Hindenburg report, and it appears to be a concocted set of allegations for not only private profiteering, but also apparently an attack on India’s pace of growth. The report’s impact on the Indian economy and jobs has been significant.

The Supreme Court judgment makes it clear that a foreign report by OCCRP, an organisation funded by billionaire George Soros and others, cannot be the basis for doubting the capital markets regulator SEBI’s investigation into the Hindenburg case.

Hearsay and allegations based on other newspaper reports cannot be the basis of an investigation. It further appears that foreign players unleashed a pincer movement between Hindenburg report and OCCRP.

One needs to question why the George Soros backed organization had a sudden interest in the capital markets of India and their functioning?

It is also to be kept in mind that George Soros had a hand in affecting the financial crisis in Malaysia and the rest of South East Asia in 1996, which had a devastating effect on those economies, and ground their stupendous growth to a standstill. Of course, George Soros amassed significant wealth from the short-selling he had done at that time.

The accusations of high PE ratios of Adani stocks also appear to be misrepresentations of facts. The Adani companies that had high PE ratios. Adani Total is a startup whose high valuation is based on the market opportunities that the company can capture, rather than current revenues. That is how companies like Zomato, Paytm and others have high valuations even when they are making losses.

To judge a startup with PE ratio is misleading if not outright mischievous.

India’s institutions managed to avert any large-scale fallout of the interference in our capital markets by what appears to be interests that are inimical to India. As soon as the Hindenburg allegations are getting cleared, we hear Canadian anti-India terrorist Pannun, calling for dumping of Indian stocks.

Clearly, there is a sustained attempt by anti-India forces (based in Western countries) to harm the Indian economy. It is highly unlikely that the Hindenburg report, OCCRP report and the call for dumping Indian stocks by a Canadian terrorist, are disparate events happening in perfect sequence, out of sheer serendipity. There clearly is more to it.

Moving forward, we can expect more hit jobs in the Indian economy. We need to evolve institutional structures that are able to respond more rapidly to such threats so that our economy stays protected. More importantly, we need to develop extraterritorial legislation that enables us to bring to book truant organizations like the Hindenburg group.

The Adani group went through a detailed investigation by SEBI. But what about the Hindenburg group?

It is quite unacceptable that the Hindenburg group and OCCRP are going scot free with no investigations on their intent and motivation for their respective reports and the baseless allegations that they had made. It is high time that India works towards creating the regulatory frameworks needed to protect its companies and to bring to book global organizations that target Indian companies without any evidence.

(The author is the President of Centre for Digital Economy Policy; Views are personal)

  • Published On Jan 5, 2024 at 02:00 PM IST

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