Almost 18 months after its first report on Adani Group, Hindenburg Research alleged that SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch is also involved in the stock manipulations by Adani Group.
Madhabi Puri Buch is the first female chairperson of SEBI, she was appointed in March 2022. As a SEBI chief Buch has overseen important departments related to surveillance, supervision, and regulations.
Hinderburg Research states that Madhabi Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch have hidden stakes in the offshore funds (Mauritius Funds) linked to the Adani Group. They have around 10 million dollars as an investment in Mauritius funds. Madhabi and her husband denied this allegation and stated that this report is baseless and that they are just trying to make money from short selling.
The report also claims that SEBI didn’t take any action on Adani Group’s stock manipulation because of the involvement of its chairperson Madhabi in Mauritius funds. It also stated that the money invested in Mauritius funds is her money.
Impact of Hindenburg Report
Due to the Hindenburg Research’s report, we have seen a 7% decrement in the stock price of Adani Enterprises today. Last year when its first report came in January 2023, Adani Enterprises’ stakes went down by 59%.
Hindenburg also claims that during her tenure as a wholetime member from April 2017 to March 2022, she had 100% interest in Agora Partners, a Singapore-based consulting firm. She transferred all the shares to her husband 2 weeks after becoming the chairperson of SEBI.
Opposition’s Stance on the New Hindenburg Report
Opposition leaders in India also started targeting the current NDA government for not taking any actions against the Adani Group and the slowness of the stock manipulation case. Leaders including Rahul Gandhi state that the government not taking action against the Adani Group because they fund their elections.
In the past also, we have seen these allegations from Rahul Gandhi in parliament as well against Adani.
The leader of NDA such as Sudhanshu Trivedi said in the media that all these reports came before the parliament session started it could be either a BBC Documentary or any religious report.
Adani and the BJP party also state that these allegations are baseless and they are doing it for short selling like last time in January 2023 when Adani Enterprises stock went down by 59% and people earned a good amount by short selling.
In Hindenburg Research’s January 2023 report, they mentioned that SEBI also honestly wanted to find the people involved in stock manipulation cases. They were putting in all their efforts but along with that SEBI also mentioned that we don’t know this case will go in which direction and how much time it will take. They were also not able to figure out how many parties were involved.
It is not that Hindenburg Research targets Indian companies, they publish reports for various other companies which include Nikola Corporations, DraftKings, Ormat Technologies, and SOS Limited.
Before publishing its report Hindenburg Research posted on X “Something Big Soon India”. This also clearly shows that they directly challenged the credibility of SEBI on which every investor relies.
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We might see the stock price going down for a few days but it did not impact like last time because this time they published the report on the Involvement of SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch.
We have seen many people are entering the stock market nowadays but if all these Hindenburg Research allegations found true after proper investigation by the Supreme Court and agencies then it could impact the trust of people in the credibility of SEBI. Right now, without investigation, it would be wrong to say anything.