- Saturday, March 01, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
The Adani group has dismissed reports that it has hired American accountancy firm Grant Thornton saying it was “market rumour”.
In a statement released to the stock exchanges, Adani Enterprises, the flagship entity of the Gautam Adani-led conglomerate, said the news about hiring Grant Thornton appeared to be “market rumour and hence it would be inappropriate on our part to comment on it,” India Today reported.
“We wish to confirm that we have made and will continue to make disclosures in compliance with our obligations under the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 and our agreements with the stock exchanges. You are requested to take the above on your records,” the statement said.
It was only a few days ago that several media reports indicated that the Indian conglomerate roped in Grant Thornton to carry out independent audits of some of its companies in order to discredit claims made by US short-seller Hindenburg Research which has led to a massive controversy in India’s financial, political and social circles.
In a report in January, the US short-seller had accused the Adani Group of stock manipulation and improper use of tax havens.
The conglomerate refuted the rumours but failed to satisfy the larger investor community and global financial institutions.
As a result, the seven main listed entities of the group lost a combined market capitalisation of nearly $120 billion.
The Adani Group took many steps to control the damage, including reassuring investors about its liquidity position, prepayment of some loans and roping in a top law firm from the US.
Reports about the company hiring Grant Thornton came after it said last week that it was considering an independent evaluation of issues related to legal compliance, internal controls, etc. following Hindenburg’s report.
