“Had Our Detractors’ Plan Fully Succeeded…”: Gautam Adani On Hindenburg

The Adani Group stands cleared of all charges by the Hindenburg Research. The experience has taught the company valuable lessons, chairman Gautam Adani writes for The Times of India, a year since the allegations were made.

Here are 10 highlights from Mr Adanis article:

“Lies and baseless allegations against us were nothing new. So, after issuing a comprehensive response, I thought no more about it.”
“Impact of short-selling attacks is normally limited to financial markets. This, however, was a unique two-dimensional attack: a financial one, of course, and one that played out in political space, each feeding off the other.”
“Aided and abetted by some in media, these lies against us were corrosive enough to substantially erode our portfolio’s market cap. Typically, capital markets are more emotional than rational. What pained me even more is that thousands of small investors lost their savings.”
“Had our detractors’ plan fully succeeded, domino effects could have crippled many critical infrastructure assets, seaports and airports to power supply chains – a catastrophic situation for any country.”
“We couldn’t fall back on a precedent to handle this situation. Our confidence in the solidity of our businesses dictated our largely contrarian strategy.”
“We focused on transparently outlining facts and narrating our side of the story. This led to a declining influence of negative campaigns against our group.”
“A testament to the change in public perception is the significant growth in our shareholder base, a primary target of FPOs. Over this challenging year, our shareholder base expanded by 43%, reaching nearly 70 lakh.”
“This experience underscored the necessity of engaging effectively with our non-financial stakeholders.”
“Trials and tribulations of past year have taught us valuable lessons, made us stronger and reaffirmed our faith in Indian institutions. While this devious attack on us – and our strong countermeasures – will no doubt become a case study, I felt compelled to share my learnings because, it was us today, it could be someone else tomorrow.”
“I am under no illusion that this is the end of such attacks. I believe we have emerged stronger from this experience and more unwavering in our resolve to continue our humble contribution to the India growth story.”