IHe hadn’t seen that one coming. The Indian conglomerate Adani thought it had everything planned to raise 2.4 billion dollars (2.2 billion euros) on the markets on Friday January 27. A huge operation for the Bombay Stock Exchange, supposed to attract large investors, from the Gulf in particular. One more international consecration for the richest man in Asia. But there appeared on the horizon, this sinister pirate with the name of disaster.
On Wednesday January 25, the American hedge fund Hindenburg published a hundred-page report accusing the conglomerate of price manipulation and fraud. Two days later, the group lost, according to the Bloomberg agency, nearly 45 billion dollars in valuation, and its listing was suspended that same Friday after a 15% drop in the stock market.
Yet Gautam Adani is a formidable entrepreneur. The son of a modest textile merchant from Ahmedabad, in Gujarat, he started trading after the country was opened to imports in 1985. He quickly became a specialist in raw materials, buying and selling oil, coal , agricultural products, and is interested in port activities.
Nebula
Today, his group has mines in Australia and Indonesia; it manages a dozen ports and eight airports. From the import of coal, he moved on to the production of electrical energy. Seven of his companies are listed on the stock exchange, his fortune exceeds 110 billion dollars. Personal friend of the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, he aims to buy the powerful media group NDTV, known for its opposition to the power in place.
The stars therefore seemed well aligned for the Indian tycoon. Especially since the country’s economy seems to be floating on a small cloud at the moment. India’s growth is expected to exceed 7% this year, after peaking at over 8% in 2022, one of the strongest expansions in the world. Largely superior to that of the Chinese rival, which it now also exceeds in population.
But Indian capitalism, which is very dynamic, is still largely in the hands of a few families who manage nebulae of companies in an opaque manner. Those of the Adani group have seen their market value grow by more than 3,000% in five years, but the free float remains small, the debt significant and the valuation very high. A prey of choice for audacious financiers, like Nathan Anderson, the creator of Hindenburg. He had his hands on electric truck maker Nikola, exposing fraud that led to executives being indicted. Like many of his colleagues, he is now heading for Asia and its well-kept secrets.