Sebi Clears Adani on Hindenburg Allegations

New Delhi, Sep 18 (PTI) Markets regulator Sebi on Thursday cleared billionaire Gautam Adani and his group of stock manipulation allegations made by US short-seller Hindenburg Research, saying it found no evidence that the conglomerate used related parties to route funds into its listed companies.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in two separate detailed orders said the allegations of insider trading, market manipulation, and violations of public shareholding norms were found to be unsubstantiated after a detailed investigation.

Hindenburg, which has since shut down, in January 2023 published a damning report against the Adani Group, alleging Adicorp Enterprises Pvt Ltd, Milestone Tradelinks Pvt Ltd, and Rehvar Infrastructure Pvt Ltd were used as a conduit to route funds from various Adani Group companies to fund publicly listed Adani Power Ltd and Adani Enterprises Ltd.

There was no violation of Sebi's disclosure norms as the transactions between Adicorp, Milestone Tradelinks, and Rehvar Infrastructure with the conglomerate's firms did not meet the definition of a related party, Sebi board member Kamlesh C Varshney said in the two orders.


It also found no violations involving substantial acquisition of securities or control that could mislead investors.

As a result, Sebi concluded that there was no basis for assigning liability or imposing penalties on the Adani entities or executives.

The regulatory clean chit follows months of scrutiny and speculation triggered by Hindenburg's damning report of January 2023, which triggered a stock rout of the listed Adani Group companies, eroding more than USD 150 billion in value at its lowest point.

Adani Group has repeatedly denied all allegations made in the Hindenburg report and its stocks recovered most of the losses before the a broader index meltdown set in.

A Supreme Court-appointed expert panel had previously echoed similar findings, noting no prima facie evidence of wrongdoing.