The US short-seller Hindenburg Research reportedly shared an advance copy of its critical report on the Adani group with New York-based hedge fund manager Mark Kingdon about two months before its public release. According to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), this collaboration resulted in profits from the share price movement of Adani group companies. In a 46-page show-cause notice, Sebi detailed how Hindenburg, the New York hedge fund, and a broker associated with Kotak Mahindra Bank benefited from the market value loss of over $ 150 billion in Adani group's 10 listed firms following the report's publication.
Sebi accused Hindenburg of making unfair profits through collusion, using non-public and misleading information to induce panic selling in Adani Group stocks. In response, Hindenburg published the Sebi notice and described it as an attempt to silence and intimidate those exposing corruption and fraud by powerful individuals in India. They also revealed that the vehicle used for betting against Adani's flagship firm, Adani Enterprises (AEL), belonged to Kotak Mahindra (International), a Mauritius-based subsidiary of Kotak Mahindra Bank.
The show-cause notice included excerpts from time-stamped chats between a hedge fund employee and KMIL traders about selling future contracts in AEL. Kotak Mahindra Bank claimed that Kingdon never disclosed any relationship with Hindenburg or that they were acting on any price-sensitive information.
