The Adani affair

Doubts about India's corporate governance norms and integrity of its financial markets?

The sharp downturn in the stock prices of the Adani group companies since the publication of the Hindenburg report on January 24, 2023, has been tracked exhaustively by Indian and international commentators. However, there is no readily available information about whether the shorting of hard-currency bonds or any other securities of the Adani companies was on foreign stock exchanges or by using over-the-counter derivatives. It is unlikely any shorting was done by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) since it would have been difficult to hedge the risks involved without getting detected.