The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and its chairman Madhabi Puri Buch on Sunday refuted fresh allegations by New York-based Hindenburg Research in the Adani matter.
In a new report on Saturday, Hindenburg questioned the delay in investigating Adani and Sebi’s objectivity in the matter, claiming that Buch and her husband Dhaval were disputable parties because they had invested in a fund that was allegedly used to inflate Adani Group share prices.
Besides raising eyebrows over the use of a foreign fund structure, the US short seller also accused India’s securities regulator of supporting real estate investment trusts (REITs) because of Dhaval Buch’s association with private equity major Blackstone, a big investor in domestic real estate. flat.
Both Sebi and Buch released separate statements denying all the allegations, calling them baseless and an attempt at character assassination.
The Buchs found support from legal experts and market participants such as Amfi, the mutual fund industry body, which backed its credibility and questioned the US short seller’s intentions. However, the Sebi chairman faced criticism from some political parties who called for a joint parliamentary committee to investigate the allegations.
Citing whistleblower documents, Hindenburg on Saturday released a report on the couple’s investments in the IPE Plus 1 Fund, a Mauritius-based segregated fund of the Global Dynamic Opportunities Fund (GDOF) managed by IIFL Wealth (now 360-One).
Buchs and 360-One clarified that the fund, accused of links to the Adani group, never invested in any Adani securities during its tenure. In addition, the Buchs’ holdings were only 1.5 percent of the fund’s corpus, and they never had any say in investment decisions.
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The couple said their investment, which dates back to when they lived in Singapore, was because investment director Anil Ahuja was Dhaval’s childhood friend. They soon redeemed themselves after Ahuja left in 2018.
Responding to allegations that Sebi favored REITs, the couple said Dhaval had no connection with the real estate side of Blackstone and was associated with private equity PE and other firms, given his expertise in supply chain management.
The report wiped Rs 12 trillion of Adani group firms’ market capitalization from R 19.2 trillion to less than Rs 7 trillion. The group has now recovered all losses and traded above levels seen before the original Hindenburg Report was released in January 2023.
In a new statement, the Adani group called Hindenburg’s latest allegations damaging and manipulative.
