A short-seller rattles Gautam Adani’s empire

From meagre beginnings in the 1980s, Gautam Adani has emerged as India’s richest citizen. Now, in just a few days, the foundations of his sprawling empire have been shaken. On January 24th a small New York investment firm, Hindenburg Research, calling the Adani Group “the largest con in corporate history”. In a series of statements, the group responded by saying that the report was “maliciously mischievous”, “unresearched” and intended to “sabotage” a secondary share offering of the group’s flagship listed company, Adani Enterprises. The group also said that Hindenburg had published its report “without making any attempt to contact us or verify the factual matrix”. “We are deeply disturbed by this intentional and reckless attempt by a foreign entity to mislead the investor community and the general public,” wrote the group’s top lawyer, Jatin Jalundhwala.