Ports-to-energy Adani group is better off financially now than at the time when it was under attack from short-seller Hindenburg, US-based research firm Bernstein said citing dramatic drop in shares pledged by promoters and low leverage.
The last big event for the group was in January 2023 when Hindenburg accused it of accounting and financial fraud, and the latest one happened on November 21 when US authorities filed an indictment against the founder chairman of the conglomerate Gautam Adani and key aides in a bribery related case.
Adani Group had repeatedly denied all charges in the Hindenburg report as well as the ones brought by the US authorities last month.
Bernstein in a report said it is presenting a top-down view on how the groups leverage, share-pledges, debt-repayment and relative valuations have evolved in the last two years to assess whether the risks are lower than earlier.
The group is now in a much stronger position with no share-pledges, low leverage, debt repayments and improved valuations.
A key concern during the short-seller event last year was the share pledge of the group-across assets. The fear was that the group has pledged these shares to raise money which has been invested as equity in new businesses, hence a tight liquidity environment for the group could lead to a domino effect.
“If we look at the evolution of share pledges for the group, there has been a dramatic drop across companies — this is one area where the group has taken significant action over the last 1.5 year,” Bernstein said. Read more
Source: Telegraph India