On January 24, 2023, shares of all the Adani Group companies came under major selling pressure when US-based short seller Hindenburg Research accused the group of "brazen stock manipulation" and accounting fraud. Shares of all Adani companies saw a sharp fall for the next few consecutive days, with the port-to-power conglomerate recording a loss of $150 billion in market value at its lowest point.
Adani Group vehemently denied charges and began face-saving measures by initiating repayments of borrowings and pouring money into its various businesses.
The Supreme Court's observations that Hindenburg's report could not be considered as "credible" and that media reports should not be treated as "gospel truth" helped the company win back some of the lost investor sentiments.
As per the stock exchanges data, the Adani Group's current market cap at Rs 14.52 lakh crore is about 24 per cent below its previous record of Rs 19.23 lakh crore, reached before the Hindenburg Research report that came out on January 24.
Only three of the group's 10 stocks managed to recover from the sharp selloff that followed the report—Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd, Adani Power and Ambuja Cements. Of these, Adani Power rallied over 89 per cent in the past one year and Adani Ports zoomed over 47 per cent from its year-ago levels. Ambuja Cements registered five per cent growth in the past one year.
All the remaining stocks continued to bleed with Adani Total Gas recording a decline of over 74 per cent since the report last year.
Adani Wilmar registered a fall of over 38 per cent while Adani Enterprises declined over 15 per cent in the past one year.
Adani Green Energy shares fell over 14 per cent, NDTV over six per cent, and ACC over 4 per cent.
Slowly but steadily, Adani Group appears to be clawing back the narrative with resilient financial and operational performance. All 15 listed group bonds bounced back and are trading at pre-Hindenburg levels, according to market data.
Besides, the company has been continuing with its Mergers and Acquisitions, acquiring Sanghi cement for $431 million, 49.38 per cent in Indian Oil Tanking for $128 million, Karaikal port for $181 million, and Coastal Energen for $420 million.
The EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) of its portfolio companies jumped 47 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal year to Rs 43,688 crore on growth across businesses.
