Social media came up with innovative arguments and comments soon after the US-based short seller and analyst group, Hindenburg Research, released a report on Adani Group alleging brazen stock manipulation right ahead of a landmark follow-on public offer (FPO) from the group’s flagship Adani Enterprises Ltd.

On Wednesday, after the report released by the investment research firm, reportedly said to have just five employees as of 2020, all the Adani Group stocks took a severe beating eroding over ₹45,000 crore in combined market wealth for the companies.

Capturing the sentiment, Singapore Stock Exchange’s SGX Nifty’s twitter handle posted a meme relating with the downfall in the Adani stocks.

But the investor community and the common man were not completely short of the common sense.

A user wrote: “Nathan Anderson is founder of Hindenburg Research. He is a short seller. After his report, Adani stocks tumbled by 43000 crores guess who made money Thats how u play game”

Hindenburg Research teaser

It is evident that Hindenburg Research’s promoters, including Nate Anderson, were well prepared to cash in on the predicted downfall in the Adani stocks as they had announced about the revelation on what they suspected to be the largest corporate fraud in history.

“Soon we will release a report on what we strongly suspect to be the largest corporate fraud in history,” Hindenburg Research had tweeted at 2.34 a.m. on January 25.

Interestingly, the US investor community, which usually tracks Hindenburg Research for their financial bets on American companies or investors, appeared disappointed. While some felt it to be something bigger than the past revelations about TV personality Jim Cramer, who allegedly made money from privileged information on specific US stocks.

Some other follower pointed at US financier Bernie Madoff, who allegedly ran a Ponzi scheme in the US.

And some suspected it to be about Tesla!

Others put an eye of suspicion on US banks: “Either Wells Fargo or Deutsche Banks most likely candidates”, a user wrote.

While hardly any Indian analyst or other analysts tracking Indian corporate bothered to dig into Hindenburg’s mid-night teaser, there were plenty of US analysts who had already started mining for some obvious revelations.

Michael Gogel was one such analyst who wrote: “One of my thoughts right now is whether or not parties front-ran knowledge of the publishing of this report of the largest corporate fraud in history, and if it has anything to do with the 80-odd stocks that mysteriously pumped and halted on the NYSE today. Coincidence of course.”

It appears that Hindenburg Research’s report on Adani would have inflicted more disappointment to the US investors than it caused value erosion to the Adani stocks on Wednesday.

Sample this one from Gordon Johnson: “There is only ONE company that fits the title. If it’s not them, it’s not the *largest*”

Malicious, says Adani

The Adani Group has rubbished the report terming it as a malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations to damage the prospects of the FPO of the group’s flagship Adani Enterprises Ltd.

Jugeshinder Singh, Chief Financial Officer, Adani Group, also questioned the timing of the report’s publication and stated that it was published “without making any attempt to contact us or verify the factual matrix.”

“The timing of the report’s publication clearly betrays a brazen, mala fide intention to undermine the Adani Group’s reputation with the principal objective of damaging the upcoming Follow-on Public Offering from Adani Enterprises, the biggest FPO ever in India.”

AEL’s ₹20,000-crore FPO opened for subscription under anchor investor category on Wednesday and was oversubscribed.

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