When stock trading resumed after the holiday in India, Gautam Adani's conglomerate really felt the consequences of the attacks from America: the price losses of the listed Adani companies totaled almost 50 billion dollars in India on Friday afternoon.

Adani's holdings fell below the $100 billion mark.

On Wednesday, the analysts of the American short seller Hindenburg Research attacked the group of the then third richest man in the world.

The founder announced legal action against Hindenburg on Friday.

Christopher Hein

Business correspondent for South Asia/Pacific based in Singapore.

  • Follow I follow

The Americans reacted coldly: "We have a long list of documents that we would have disclosed in a trial," they warned.

The American major investor Bill Ackman seconded: Hindenburg's report was "very credible and extraordinarily well researched".

Adani's General Counsel, Jatin Jalundhwala, spoke of a "willful and reckless attempt by a foreign company to mislead the investment community and the public, to undermine the goodwill and reputation of the Adani Group and its executives, and to sabotage the Adani Enterprises share sale." “.

Adani proceeded with the sale of further shares in Enterprises, which was scheduled to start this Friday, as if nothing had happened.

The big institutional buyers - including the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Goldman Sachs, Nomura and Morgan Stanley - had stuck with him.

Meanwhile, large parts of his group experienced a disaster.

Adani Enterprises shares lost 14 percent of their value by Friday afternoon, other group companies even a fifth.

The price of Enterprises ranked below the issue price of the new paper.

Accordingly, small investors have so far only bought a good one percent of the shares on offer, which would have been quickly seized before the attack.

India's supervisors can no longer avoid investigating the massive allegations by the Americans.

Indian regulators scrutinize the Adani family's investments overseas, in tax havens like Mauritius - where many Indians take their money, often in order to bring it back home tax-efficiently.

Hindenburg explained that the Indian group had previously been "at the center of four major government fraud investigations involving money laundering, tax theft and corruption totaling $17 billion."

Adani chief financial officer Jugeshinder Singh, on the other hand, said that "the allegations had been investigated and dismissed by the highest Indian courts".

that the Indian group had previously been "at the center of four major government fraud investigations involving money laundering, tax theft and corruption totaling $17 billion."

Adani chief financial officer Jugeshinder Singh, on the other hand, said that "the allegations had been investigated and dismissed by the highest Indian courts".

that the Indian group had previously been "at the center of four major government fraud investigations involving money laundering, tax theft and corruption totaling $17 billion."

Adani chief financial officer Jugeshinder Singh, on the other hand, said that "the allegations had been investigated and dismissed by the highest Indian courts".

On Friday, the wave then reached the Indian banks that support Adani.

The index for the state institutes lost 6.6 percent in the economic metropolis of Mumbai (Bombay).

Analysts at CLSA estimate that Indian banks account for about 40 percent, or about $25 billion, of the group's debt -- a sum they could bear on the bottom line.

"The volatility in the Indian stock market due to the report is very ominous and has created unwanted fears among the citizens of India," said Jalundhwala.

Adani is far from standing alone.

Especially since his eldest son, who controls the core business of the group, is married to Paridhi Shroff.

The lawyer is the daughter of Cyril Shroff,