Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India: Friday, January 5, 2024 9:37AM IST (4:07AM GMT
- Junks petitioner’s reliance placed on OCCRP report to suggest that India’s market regulator was lackadaisical in its probe
- Directs India’s capital market regulator to probe whether short positions by certain entities violated Indian law
India’s Supreme Court on Wednesday disposed-off the public interest litigations (PILs) filed last year after a short seller published a report making malicious and baseless claims against the Adani Group. The conglomerate had dismissed the report as being a malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations.
Commenting on this, Mr. Gautam Adani, Chairman of the Adani Group, said, “Truth has prevailed. I am grateful to those who stood by us. Our humble contribution to India’s growth story will continue.”
The Supreme Court directed the country’s market regulator and investigative agencies to probe into whether the loss suffered by Indian investors due to the conduct of Hindenburg Research and any other entities in taking short positions before the report’s publication involved a violation of the law.
The judgment also addressed the petitioner’s use of a report published by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) that made certain claims based on closed cases. The Apex Court observed that reliance placed by the petitioners on newspaper reports and third-party organisations like the OCCRP to question the investigation by India’s capital markets regulator is misconceived and does not inspire confidence.
The Adani Group has continued its growth trajectory despite the developments during the last year. In December, the Group announced that it will invest USD 100 billion in green energy transition over the next ten years. Five of its portfolio companies have set a target to become net zero by 2050. The Adani portfolio of companies have demonstrated robust financial performance while further enhancing credit profile in the first half of fiscal year 2024. During the period, the portfolio level EBITDA stood at Rs 43,688 crore (USD 5.3 billion), up 47% YoY. This growth outpaced the portfolio’s historical five-year Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) trajectory of 26.3%.
The Adani Group also received important endorsement from the US government as it received $553 million financing for a port terminal in Sri Lanka. The financing from International Development Finance Corp. (DFC) for the deep-water West Container Terminal in Colombo is the US government agency’s largest infrastructure investment in Asia, and among its biggest globally. It will bolster Sri Lanka’s economic growth and “its regional economic integration, including with India, a key partner to both countries,” the DFC had said in a statement.
