All About Hindenburg Report

Introduction:

Nate Anderson, CFA, CAIA, established Hindenburg Research in 2016. According to the company's website, it specialises in forensic financial investigation. It further states that it has decades of experience in the investment management sector and has historically focused on equity, credit, and derivatives analyses. The website states, "While we employ fundamental analysis to help our investing decision-making, we feel the most effective research results from unearthing difficult-to-find information from unusual sources."

Nate Anderson lived in Jerusalem before moving back to the United States, where he worked as a consultant for FactSet, according to a Financial Times report from June 2021. Later, he worked for a broker-dealer company in New York and Washington, DC. Andersen had previously collaborated with Harry Markopolos, who had alerted to Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scam, before starting the research firm.

The Hindenburg tragedy, in which a German passenger airship caught fire and killed 35 people, served as the inspiration for the company's name. "In our opinion, the Hindenburg accident was wholly man-made and completely preventable. Nearly 100 individuals were put aboard a balloon that contained the universe's most combustible substance. Despite dozens of preceding hydrogen-powered aircraft suffering similar demises, this was the case. However, the Hindenburg's operators persisted, adopting the oft-quoted Wall Street axiom that "this time is different," according to the company's website.

It continues, "We search for such man-made tragedies floating around in the market and seek to bring them to light before they entice additional unwary victims."

Companies about which Hindenburg has written:

Previous reports from Hindenburg covered businesses like Nikola, WINS Finance, Genius Brands, China Metal Resources Utilization, SC Worx, HF Foods, Riot Blockchain, and more.

In the September 2020 report titled "Nikola: How to Parlay An Ocean of Lies Into a Partnership With the Largest Auto OEM in America," a "huge array of alleged lies and deceptions by Nikola in the years preceding up to its planned partnership with General Motors" were criticised. Trevor Milton, the founder and executive chairman of Nikola, left the business after this.

A corporate subsidiary in China was under an RMB 350 million asset freeze that had not been reported to US investors, according to the WINS Finance report, which was published in June 2020. NASDAQ delisted WINS in October 2020, roughly four months after the disclosure, "particularly owing to the concealed asset freeze we observed."

Genius Brands, which was then trading at around $6.86 per share, was predicted by Hindenburg to "shortly become a $1.50 stock due to tremendous retail excitement and looming dilution" in June 2020. Shares dropped to $1.50 by the end of July of the same year. The investment research firm published a report on China Metal Resources Utilization in May 2020 that detailed the company's dire financial situation and several accounting problems, including proof of hidden related party transactions. Following this, EY resigned as auditor, and stock prices dropped by more than 90%.

Allegation on Adani Group:

In a 413-page response to the research released on Monday, the Adani Group was disputed by Hindenburg Research. According to the company's answer to the report, nationalism cannot be used to mask fraud. The statement continues, "We also feel that the Adani Group, which has wrapped itself in the Indian flag while methodically robbing the nation, is holding back India's future. The Adani Group has repeatedly rejected the allegations made by Hindenburg."

Allegations Refuted by Adani Group:

The Adani group described the report as "a nasty combination of selective falsehoods and stale unfounded and discredited charges" during the round of rebuttals. The Adani group is currently thinking about suing Hindenburg research. The legal director of the Adani group stated in a statement, "We are assessing the appropriate options under US and Indian legislation for remedial and punitive action against Hindenburg." Additionally, the group claimed that the devastating claims made by Hindenburg research are "nothing but a fiction" and compared them to a "Calculated onslaught" on India, its institutions, and its growth story.

The group claimed that it was evident throughout the report that Hindenburg Research lacked knowledge of the Indian legal system, accounting standards, and how fund-raising procedures operate in the Indian capital market. In reaction, US-based short seller Hindenburg stated, "We too believe that the Adani group, which has covered itself in the Indian flag while deliberately robbing the country, is holding back India's future. The Hindenburg had already declared that it would "welcome" legal action from Adani if it chose to do so in the USA.

Despite the turmoil, SBI chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara responded, "There is nothing worrisome about our Adani exposure and we don't have any concerns as of now," in response to a major worry raised over LIC and SBI's exposure to the stock of the Adani group. He claimed that the Adani Group has not recently requested finance from SBI and that the bank will make a "prudent call" regarding any funding requests they could make in the near future. According to two sources with knowledge of the situation, India's market regulator SEBI has enhanced monitoring of deals by the Adani group over the past year and will review the report to supplement its own ongoing preliminary probe of the group's international portfolio investors. On the other hand, Jugshinder Singh, CFO of Adani Enterprises, stated in an interview with PTI that the organisation will publish a thorough response to the Hindenburg report "supplying "documentary proof" to "clearly demonstrate that no research was conducted and that no investigative reporting was done. There is nothing but blatantly false portrayal of actual events." Sebi, the market regulator, and stock exchanges are investigating the decline in Adani stock prices.