Hindenburg report: Adani Group shares drop up to 4%, stock market falls

Adani Group stocks fell up to 4% after US short-seller Hindenburg claimed that Sebi chief Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch held interests in offshore funds based in Bermuda and Mauritius.

These funds were used by Gautam Adani’s brother Vinod Adani to acquire and trade significant shares in the Adani Group, the report claimed.

What Sebi chief said on Hindenburg allegations?

The Sebi chief said that the the investment in the fund referred by Hindenburg was made in 2015 when she and her husband were private citizens living in Singapore almost two years before she joined SEBI as a whole-time member. She said, “The decision to invest in this fund was because the Chief Investment Officer, Anil Ahuja, is Dhaval’s childhood friend from school and IIT Delhi and, being an ex-employee of Citibank, JP Morgan and 3i Group plc, had many decades of strong investing career.”

She also clarified that the two consulting companies going dormant were “explicitly part of her disclosures to SEBI” and once her husband left Hindustan Unilever in 2019, he started his own practice through these two companies. She said, “When the shareholding of the Singaporean entity moved to Dhaval, this was once again disclosed, not just to SEBI, but also to the Singaporean authorities and the Indian tax authorities.”

Hindenburg says Sebi chief’s statement ‘confirms’ short-seller’s report

Hindenburg said that Sebi chief’s response “publicly confirms” her investment in the Bermuda/Mauritius fund structure “alongside money allegedly siphoned by Vinod Adani”. In her response, she admitted that the fund was run by a childhood friend of her husband who at that time was an Adani director, Hindenburg said.