ADANI FLAUNTS ROBUST EARNINGS, LOW DEBT; SAYS BEST YET TO COME

Billionaire Gautam Adani on Monday cited record earnings, robust cash positions and the lowest debt ratios to state that his ports-to-energy conglomerate was stronger than ever and its best is yet to come.

With India marching towards becoming a $10 trillion economy by 2032 and infrastructure expected to grow at 20-25 per cent to reach $2.5 trillion, Adani group being an infrastructure company “at the very core”, is “well positioned to capitalise on the upcoming opportunities”, he said.

Speaking at the annual shareholders meeting of Adani Enterprises Ltd, he reflected upon the unprecedented crisis his conglomerate faced last year following a damning report by a US short seller.

“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,” said Adani, who turned 62 on Monday.

Hindenburg Research came out with a litany of findings, accusing the Adani group of stock manipulation, accounting fraud, inflating valuations, siphoning out money and creating a complex web of shell companies that invested in group entities, flouting regulatory norms. Adani Group denied all allegations but this did not prevent its market values from dropping by $150 billion at its lowest point.

“Typical short sellers target gains from financial markets. This was different. It was a twosided attack - a vague criticism of our financial standing and, at the same time, an information distortion campaign, dragging us into a political battlefield,” he said.