On Hindenburg, Adani evokes 'matrubhumi', flaunts spunk and success

Narrating the journey of his own group as well as India's economy and the great potential both of these hold, Gautam Adani, the chairman of Adani Group, evoked the motherland while speaking at the AGM of the group.

The centerpiece of Adani's speech was his emphasis on how the group has recovered from the Hindenburg attack due to its inherent resilience, transparency and strong fundamentals. He conflated the resilience of his group with the resilience of India: "Along this journey, if there is one characteristic that has continued to define us – it has been our resilience. The resilience that allows us to get up stronger every time we take a hit. The resilience that drives our belief in the nation we call our matrubhumi (motherland)."

Flaunting the strength of his group companies and the underlying promise of his business, Adani shrugged off the allegations levelled by the Hindenburg report.


"The report was a combination of targeted misinformation and discredited allegations, the majority of them dating from 2004 to 2015. They were all settled by the appropriate authorities at that time. This report was a deliberate and malicious attempt aimed at damaging our reputation and generating profits through a short-term drive-down of our stock prices," he said. He underlined his belief in the bright future of his matrubhumi as well as of his own group.

Rooting for India
This is not the first time the group has evoked nationalist sentiment in its battle against American short-seller Hindenburg.

Right after the Hindenburg report accusing the Adani Group of several wrongdoings came out, its Chief Financial Officer Jugeshinder Singh stood in front of a fluttering Indian flag to rebut the allegations levelled by the short seller. Days later when the group withdrew a fully subscribed FPO, which was the target of the Hindenburg report, and returned the money to investors to protect their interests, Adani, clad in traditional attire, made a televised speech which he ended with "Jai Hind".

The Adani Group has projected that the Hindenburg attack on it was an attack on India, and many have believed it readily because its business is intricately linked to the national economy. "His business — with investments in capital-intensive projects such as airports, power plants and data centers — is at the heart of Modi’s growth agenda. As a national champion, the tycoon has aligned his business interests with Modi’s development goals, often stepping in where the state lacks resources or competence, helping create thousands of jobs," news agency Bloomberg had written days after the Hindenburg report came out.

"For years, Adani companies have delivered the sort of infrastructure projects India has needed. His integrated businesses touch hundreds of millions of Indians each day, from the chain of ports that deliver coal from Adani mines to company power plants running electricity to households through his transmission units. Along with developing more than 3,100 miles of the country’s road network, Adani Group is the largest private operator of India’s sea and airports, controlling 33% of Indian air cargo traffic and 24% of its shipping capacity, according to company presentations. The conglomerate plans to plow some $70 billion into renewable energy projects that are key to Modi achieving India’s Net Zero goals," Bloomberg wrote.

No wonder, Indian investors feared that the attack on Adani would dent India's economy and many saw political machinations behind the report Hindenburg published. Adani Group, when evoked nationalist sentiments, was nodding to these apprehensions.

Even as far back as in 2014, Adani had said in an interview to ET that his group was linked to the national interest. "When you are in the infrastructure sector, you’ve to work along with the government. I’m a small fry in all this. I always said that our business model is aligned with the national interest," he had told ET.

At the AGM today, Adani said, "Over the past decade – one statement that I have repeated dozens of times – is my belief in the future of the nation we call our matrubhumi. Let me try and set some context." He went on to narrate the perilous situation of the global economy, the various recent shocks, and the bright future that awaits India. He spoke of India's stable government and policy-making, the demographic dividend and growing domestic demand.

"Following our independence, it took us 58 years to get to our first trillion dollars of GDP, 12 years to get to the next trillion and just 5 years for the third trillion. I anticipate that within the next decade, India will start adding a trillion dollars to its GDP every 18 months. This puts us on track to be a 25 to 30 trillion-dollar economy by 2050 and will drive India’s stock market capitalization to over 40 trillion dollars - approximately a 10X expansion from current levels," Adani said

Flaunting business spunk

Even as Adani spoke in glowing terms of the "matrubhumi" and its economic potential, he underlined the strong fundamentals of his group and how it did not lose any market credibility despite the Hindenburg attack.

"Our track record speaks for itself, and I am grateful for the support our stakeholders have shown as we went through our challenges. It is worth noting that even during this crisis – not only did we raise several billions from international investors but also that no credit agency – in India or abroad – cut any of our ratings. This is the strongest validation of the belief that the investors have in your company’s governance and capital allocation practices," he said.

"When I founded the Adani Group over three decades back, I had never have imagined that the Adani Group would grow to become one of the largest conglomerates of the country. It was on the 12th of September 1994 that Adani Enterprises, then known as Adani Exports, launched its IPO. I had just turned 32.

Today, as I reflect over the past years, I am grateful to so many, who have enabled your company to come this far. While our true ambitions still lie ahead of us – when we make time to look back – we also realize how much ground we have covered over the past 30 years. Along this journey, if there is one characteristic that has continued to define us – it has been our resilience," Adani said, addressing the shareholders, the 44,000 "Adanians", as he called them.