False story had been weaponised, $100 billion of market value erased: Adani on Hindenburg's report

Gautam Adani on Friday recalled Hindenburg Research's report highlighting "how swiftly a false script could be propagated," due to which $100 billion of market value was erased.

Addressing the Whistling Woods International Institute, Adani Group Chairman said, "... Today, narratives are no longer confined to cinema; they move markets, influence geopolitics, and rewrite destinies. And this I can say from my personal experience, because I saw firsthand how swiftly a false script could be propagated when in January 2023, a foreign short seller, Hindenburg Research, launched a calculated attack against us."

"It was not just a short seller report that they had published, but a manipulated script crafted to provoke doubt and amplified through multiple global echo systems. In a matter of days, over $100 billion of our market value was erased, not because any fundamentals had changed, not because facts had failed, but because a totally false story had been weaponised..." the billionaire said.


In January 2023, the US-based short seller firm Hindenburg Research issued a report alleging Gautam Adani, Adani Power, Adani Enterprises and Adicorp Enterprises Pvt Ltd. being involved in stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme.

Adani also warned of the double-edged power of storytelling in an era where narratives "move markets faster than numbers". Referring to the Hindenburg report, he said the episode was a stark reminder of how a false script, amplified globally, can erase decades of work.

Also read: Hindenburg’s target was not just Adani Group, Gautam Adani says in this letter

The report triggered a steep crash in the shares of listed group companies, with some shares hitting the lower-circuit for several sessions, reportedly erasing $100 billion of market value of the ports-to-power conglomerate.

The conglomerate's founder has recently opened up on the Hindenburg report after market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) gave a clean chit to the group's entities, saying that the inter-company transactions cannot be classified as fraudulent, as there was no siphoning of money or diversion of funds. "All the money had been returned with interest before the start of the investigation and these transactions have not been held to be related party transactions."

The Adani group, he said, has reclaimed the narrative completely and emerged far stronger post this attack. And the episode highlighted an era "where headlines can undo decades of hard work, and where stories of truth trail stories of perception".

"And this experience taught me that in today's world, truth must also be loudly told. For silence leaves space for others to script your destiny," he said.

Recalling his growth journey, Adani said that one of the world's greatest storytellers helped him trace his own story, not through success of balance sheets or presence in boardrooms but in the reels of his own memory.

Reels of the movies like Don and Zanjeer always provoked the restless dreamer within me, he said.

He also called for India to take charge of its global narrative through cinema, storytelling, and emerging technologies saying, "If we do not narrate who we are, others will rewrite who we were."

Adani emphasised that India must stop allowing foreign voices to define its identity. "Silence is not humility, it is surrender," he said, pointing to films like Gandhi and Slumdog Millionaire as examples of how India’s stories have often been told through Western lenses.

In his address to the students, the founder argued that India's failure to own its story has allowed others to profit off caricatures of its reality, and said the country must stop allowing others to define its identity.