Hindenburg founder to close short-seller behind Adani, Nikola selloffs

16 Jan 2025

Hindenburg founder to close short-seller behind Adani, Nikola selloffs
Image Source: Free Malaysia Today, licensed under CC BY 4.0
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One man who is bound to be very happy with the news of Hindenburg Research closing down will be Gautam Adani, whose market value had plummeted from many, many billions to fewer billions after the American research firm published its reports about the over-valuation of the Adani group companies.

Hindenburg founder Nathan Anderson, who launched the firm in 2017, said he was exhausted by the “rather intense, and at times, all-encompassing” and had decided to call a halt to his campaign. 

Anderson has been a short-seller betting against companies he was convinced had accounting issues, or had indulged in fraud or mismanagement. His firm usually did considerable research into the target company’s finances and operations.

Anderson denied that there was any threat that caused him to take the decision to shut down. Nor was there any health issue that had led him to it. He probably had had more than enough tensions, given the antagonists he had created.

If, after conducting research into a company’s operations and finances and undisclosed related-party transactions, Hindenburg found some evidence of possible infringements, it would publish a report explaining the case; and it would bet against the target company. 

The idea was to make a profit in the process. The research would often motivate other investors to follow Hindenburg’s bearish moves.

Over $100 billion wiped off Adani shares

In 1923 Hindenburg accused India’s Adani Group of using offshore tax havens improperly. Expectedly Adani denied it, but the report resulted in over $100 billion being wiped off the group’s shares. 

U.S. prosecutors announced in November that Gautam Adani, the billionaire chair of Adani Group and one of the world’s richest people, had been indicted in New York over his role in an alleged multibillion-dollar bribery and fraud scheme.

The Adani Group was not the only or first business group Hindenburg targeted. Hindenburg has hammered electric truck maker Nikola in 2020, saying that Nikola pulled a fast one about its technology. It revealed that a Nikola video showing its electric truck cruising at high speed was simply the vehicle rolling down a hill. 

In 2022 Nikola’s founder Trevor Milton was convicted of fraud after allegations that he had lied to investors.

In 2023, the firm shorted Carl Icahn’s Icahn Enterprises and Jack Dorsey-led Block.

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