Gautam Adani on Crisis Management

Eighteen months after the original Hindenburg report, the short seller returned on August 12, 2024 with a fresh attack — this time alleging that Madhabi Puri Buch, chair of SEBI since 2022, had a conflict of interest in the Adani matter due to previous investments. Adani companies lost $2.43 billion of market value on the day, recovering from intraday losses of more than $13 billion.

Investments from Abu Dhabi-based International Holding Company (IHC) and U.S. boutique firm GQG Partners had helped restore investor confidence since the January 2023 report. By August 2024, cumulative market-cap losses since the original Hindenburg report had narrowed to roughly $32.5 billion — down from the immediate $150 billion wipeout.

Adani Enterprises was preparing a $1 billion share sale by mid-September 2024, having shelved the record $2.5 billion FPO withdrawn in the wake of Hindenburg's first allegations. Adani Energy separately raised $1 billion from U.S. investors and sovereign wealth funds earlier that month — evidence that capital-markets access, while impaired, had not been fully shut off.

SBICAPS Securities' head of fundamental equity research Sunny Agrawal framed the second selloff as a 'temporary, knee-jerk reaction' given that multiple investigations had already occurred over the prior 18 months. WealthMills' Kranthi Bathini warned of short-to-medium-term sentiment impact, especially as retail investors felt pressure from allegations against SEBI itself — a more structurally damaging line of attack than the original Adani-specific claims.

The timing of publication, just ahead of Adani Enterprises' $2.5 billion follow-on public offering opening January 27, 2023, was strategically chosen to maximize damage. Adani Group CFO Jugeshinder 'Robbie' Singh called it a 'brazen, mala fide intention' to sabotage the FPO; the FPO was withdrawn on February 1, 2023, after stock prices cratered and Adani fell from 3rd to 22nd on Forbes' billionaires tracker.