On anniversary of Hindenburg report, Gautam Adani says group has emerged stronger

Billionaire Gautam Adani reflects on the challenges faced by the Adani group, highlighting their resilience and growth despite a damaging report and market value loss.

A year after a damning report by a U.S. short seller ripped through his apples-to-airport conglomerate, billionaire Gautam Adani on Thursday said the "trials and tribulations" of the past year have made the Adani group stronger as it continued on growth path, improving asset base and launching key projects, including the Dharavi redevelopment.

In a column in a leading newspaper, he said the Adani group raised ₹40,000 crore of equity (equal to debt repayment for the next two years) through stake sales in some firms, repaid ₹17,500 crore of margin-linked financing, and trimmed debt.

Sustained focus on operations yielded the highest-ever quarterly profit in the second quarter of current fiscal, he said.

Most of the listed group companies have recouped losses induced by the Hindenburg report.

"We remained committed to maintaining our growth momentum. The Group continued its investments, evidenced by our asset base growth to ₹4.5 lakh crore," he said.

"This period (of last one year) marked the launch of several key projects, including the world's largest renewable energy generation site in Khavda (in Gujarat), a new copper smelter, a green hydrogen ecosystem, and the long-awaited redevelopment of Dharavi (slums in Mumbai)."

Mr. Adani termed Hindenburg Research's charge of fraud and stock market manipulation as "lies" and a "compilation" of "old and dead allegations" that his "detractors had been trying to resurrect".