The Supreme Court-appointed panel of experts investigating the Hindenburg allegations has said that there has been no violations by the Adani Group. In its report submitted to the SC, the panel stated that, at this point, there appears to have been no price manipulation on the part of the Adani Group.
“No pattern of artificial trading or wash trades among the same parties multiple times was found. No coherent pattern of abusive trading came to light,” the committee cited in its report.
It further stated that empirical data shows retail investment exposure to Adani stocks increased multi-fold after January 24, and added that mitigating measures by the group helped in building confidence in the stocks. The committee concluded that the Indian stock market as a whole was not unduly volatile during the period under reference.
The apex court had appointed the six-member committee after a report by US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research alleged that the Adani group was involved in ‘brazen stock manipulation’ and ‘accounting frauds’ over decades.
The committee, headed by former Supreme Court judge AM Sapre, also said that market regulator SEBI has “drawn a blank” in its probe into alleged violations in money flows from offshore entities into the conglomerate.
“The foundation of Sebi’s suspicion that led to investigations into the shareholding of the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in the Adani-listed companies is that their ownership structure is “opaque” because the ultimate chain of ownership above the 13 overseas entities holding Adani Group stocks is not clear,” the report said.
Earlier this this week, the SC granted an extension of three months and directed SEBI to complete its probe into the allegations against the Adani group by August 14.
