Adani Group chairman, Gautam Adani, on Monday said that the Hindenburg report last year was a "vague criticism" and "was designed to defame."
The remarks from Adani came amid his address to shareholders at the 32nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the conglomerate.
Terming the report a two-sided attack as it was both a vague criticism of financial standings and an information distortion campaign, the head of Adani said that despite the report eroding the company's hard-earned market value, it persisted and raised around $4.78 billion.
"We were faced with baseless accusations made by a foreign short seller that questioned our decades of hard work. In the face of an unprecedented attack on our integrity and reputation, we fought back and proved that no challenge could weaken the foundations on which your group has been established," he stated while adding that the report was amplified by a segment of vested media.
He said that the report was a "calculated strike" two days before the closing of the Adani's Follow-on Public Offer (FPO) as the conglomerate had to call-off its $2,39 billion, a day after the it successfully closed the offer.
The desicion was made after Adani Group's shares had fallen due to the Hindenburg report. The company also returned the money collected from the investors in the FPO.
Notably, the Hindenburg report published in January last year accused the Adani of "stock manipulation" and "accounting fraud." However, the accusations were denied by the conglomerate several times and Indian regulators did not uncover any truths in the report's claims.