Adani Enterprises FPO to continue as scheduled, Hindenburg's allegations baseless: Group CFO

Adani Group chief financial officer Jugeshinder Singh attacked Hindenburg's report on the Group, calling it malicious misrepresentation of facts

Panning allegations made by short-seller Hindenburg Research last week, Adani Group chief financial officer Jugeshinder Singh said the follow on public offer (FPO) of flagship Adani Enterprises will continue as scheduled.

Singh attacked Hindenburg's report on the Group, calling it malicious misrepresentation of facts, adding that the US short-seller deliberately used only part of the group’s disclosures to make misleading points.

The  report  sparked a rout in Adani stocks.

The Adani Group has accused Hindenburg Research of not doing proper research, and 'copy-pasting' from the company disclosures. It also said that they either did not do proper research or did proper research but misled the public.

Adani Group has claimed that the allegations are "nothing but a lie" and is driven by "an ulterior motive" to "create a false market" to allow the US firm to make financial gains.

"There is nothing in that report that comes from research, it comes from our disclosures. Secondly, documentary evidence we provide that they have misrepresented at best and misrepresented facts on top of it," Singh said in an exclusive interview with CNBC-TV18.

"They did not do any research – they cut, copy, pasted and the report was a hit-job on the FPO. It could be worse too – they did the research and misled the public."

Hindenburg Research said on January 25 it was holding short positions in the Adani Group companies through US-traded bonds and non-Indian-traded derivative instruments.

The report, and its fallout, is seen as one of the biggest career challenges to face billionaire Gautam Adani, whose business interests range from ports, airports, mining and power to media and cement.

Adani also responded to allegations by Hindenburg relating to the company's auditors, saying "all these auditors who have been engaged by us have been duly certified and qualified by the relevant statutory bodies."

Adani's response included more than 350 pages of annexes that included snippets from annual reports, public disclosures and earlier court rulings. The rest, Adani said, relate to public shareholders and third parties, and some were "baseless allegations based on imaginary fact patterns".

Also Read: Adani Group says it's exploring legal action against Hindenburg

On the rout in Adani stocks, Singh explained, "Even with this share price volatility, the value of those (Adani) businesses has not changed.

Singh mentioned the gross aggregate debt position of the Group is about $30 billion, of which $4 billion is held in cash. "So our net position of debt, net of cash which we can use, is $26 billion."