Last January, Hindenburg Research, a short-selling company based in the United States, released a report against the Adani Group, sparking considerable controversy and causing a sharp decline in Adani Group’s shares. At one point, the group’s market capitalization plummeted by up to $15 billion. However, since then, the group’s shares have largely recovered from this loss. The question now arises about how much profit Hindenburg Research made from this incident. The company has disclosed that it earned $4.1 million in revenue through shorting Adani Securities for its clients. However, this amount is not even close to the figure speculated in the research.
In response to a notice from market regulator SEBI, Hindenburg explained its position in a blog post. The company stated that it earned $4.1 million in revenue through Adani shorts via investor relationships. Additionally, they made $31,000 by shorting Adani’s American bonds, describing it as a small position. Hindenburg claimed they could break even on the Adani shorts, excluding legal and research expenses. The company rebutted claims in the report, mentioning they have 12-16 investor partners who have earned millions of dollars. Hindenburg criticized the notice for exaggerated claims in the Adani thesis, clarifying they only had one investor relationship.
Hindenburg stated that their work exposing Adani Group’s dealings was not financially justified and posed no personal risk or security concerns whatsoever. However, the company takes pride in their actions. They alleged that SEBI is avoiding its responsibilities, appearing to protect fraudsters instead of affected investors. Hindenburg also mentioned that Kotak Bank structured a foreign fund used by its investor partners to bet against Adani Group.
