Adani calls reports of hiring Grant Thornton for independent audit as 'market rumour'

Adani group

Adani Enterprises has issued a clarification to the stock exchange regarding the reports of appointing accountancy firm Grant Thornton for an independent audit of some of its companies.

The company issued a statement to BSE calling the report a 'market rumour'. It said, 'we would like to clarify that the said news item appears to be a market rumour and hence it would be inappropriate on our part to comment on it.' Shares of Adani Enterprises are trading soft, near the day's low of around Rs 1,800/share at 12:30 pm.

On February 14th, Reuters reported that the Adani Group has appointed accountancy firm Grant Thornton for independent audits of some of its companies in a bid to discredit claims by short-seller Hindenburg Research that have battered its stocks and bonds.

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Adani Group was considering the independent evaluation of issues relating to legal compliance, related party transactions and internal controls following the Hindenburg report, the Reuters reportage mentioned.

One of the sources also told Reuters that Grant Thornton would look at whether related-party transactions at the Adani Group complied with corporate governance standards.

Meanwhile, a day earlier, on February 13, Adani Group said that the company’s balance sheet of each of its portfolio companies was "very healthy" and that it has strong corporate governance and secure assets, amid a stock rout in the wake of a short-seller report.

Market watchdog, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) confirmed on the same day that it was investigating the report by Hindenburg, as well as market activity immediately before and after the report was published.

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On January 24, 2023, a US short seller Hindenberg Research claimed that there were significant governance issues for the Adani group and many of their allegations related to disclosures and actions at the shareholder level. Since then, equity and bond prices have plummeted for the group's entities, including for ATL, S&P Global’s statement noted.