Mumbai:

Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani Group, explained to an audience at an event in Mumbai how the group fought back against false accusations in the Hindenburg affair, emerged stronger and bounced back immediately.

“In terms of my first reaction – when the news first broke, I could see that the material that was released was all old accusations that had been recycled in different ways. Attacks like this are not new – I feel like the earlier attacks on us, like so many others, this will soon pass. In fact, it’s business as usual,” Mr Adani said.

However, Mr Adani admitted it was a sophisticated form of attack against the group.

“The Hindenburg attack on Adani was the largest attack on a business in the world. I also have no hesitation in saying that this attack was a unique two-dimensional attack compared to the typical one-dimensional short seller attack. This attack on us “is happening not only in financial markets but also in the political arena. The two are complementary and complementary to each other and have received strong support from sections of the media in India and abroad,” Mr. Adani said.

He said Adani Group “initially grossly underestimated the impact of the report”.

“However, it didn’t take long for us to understand the conspiracy and its depth. As there was no precedent for dealing with a crisis of this nature and scale, we developed our own response strategy to deal with it – and the rest, as they say, is history, “He said.

Explaining the steps taken by the group following the short-seller attack, Adani said the first step was to return proceeds from a follow-on public issue (FPO) of Rs 20,000 crore on “ethical grounds”.

Subsequently, the Adani Group created a strong cash reserve of Rs 70,000 crore, advanced margin-linked financing of Rs 17,500 crore and insulated the CEO and executives from the noise. “I told them to tighten their belts and focus on business,” Mr Adani said.

The group has further maintained its growth momentum and continues expansion and new projects such as Kafda, Dharavi, copper smelting plant, etc. It created a war room and answered all questions, Mr Adani said, adding that they executed an extensive engagement plan with all stakeholders.

Mr Adani said two key takeaways were: cash is king and the importance of engagement and close communication with all stakeholders.

“Our biggest takeaway is that doing a good job is not enough, we also have to tell our stories. We need to communicate more, and do so in a timely and effective manner,” Mr Adani said.

“The last thing I want to share is that the thing that pains me the most about the whole Hindenburg affair is that a lot of retail shareholders lost money. I feel really bad for them because they lost money for no reason. There was never any truth. All These allegations – were later confirmed when our company regained its financial value in the capital markets,” the Adani Group Chairman said.

(Disclaimer: NDTV is a subsidiary of AMG Media Networks Limited, part of the Adani Group.)