Adani Group Denies Reports Of Appointing Grant Thornton For Audits, Calls 'Market Rumour'

On February 14, a news agency reported that Adani Group has appointed accountancy firm Grant Thornton for audits of some of its firms in a bid to discredit claims by short-seller Hindenburg Research

Adani Enterprises has issued a clarification to the stock exchange regarding the reports of appointing accountancy firm Grant Thornton for an independent audit of some of its companies.

In a statement to the BSE, the company termed the report a 'market rumour'. "We would like to clarify that the said news item appears to be a market rumour and hence it would be inappropriate on our part to comment on it. We wish to confirm that we have made and will continue to make disclosures in compliance with our obligations under SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 and our agreements with the stock exchanges," Adani Group said in a statement.

Shares of Adani Enterprises are trading soft, near the day's low of around Rs 1,802.50/share at 2.30 pm on Thursday.

On February 14, news agency Reuters reported that Adani Group has appointed accountancy firm Grant Thornton for independent audits of some of its companies in a bid to discredit claims by short-seller Hindenburg Research that have battered its stocks and bonds.

Adani Group was considering the independent evaluation of issues relating to legal compliance, related party transactions and internal controls following the Hindenburg report, the Reuters reportage mentioned. One of the sources also told Reuters that Grant Thornton would look at whether related-party transactions at the Adani Group complied with corporate governance standards.

Meanwhile, a day earlier, on February 13, Adani Group said that the company’s balance sheet of each of its portfolio companies was "very healthy" and that it has strong corporate governance and secure assets, amid a stock rout in the wake of a short-seller report.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) confirmed on the same day that it was investigating the report by Hindenburg, as well as market activity immediately before and after the report was published.

Shares of Adani Group firms rebound after index provider MSCI has said that it will postpone implementation of updates to weightings for two Adani Group companies – Adani Total Gas and Adani Transmission – to the May benchmark review.