Publish a 100-page report to short the Indian Adani Group, and Hindenburg, an emerging short-selling institution in the United States, has a big head!

2025年10月24日 | admin | aljs
Source: Global Times
[Special correspondent of Global Times in the United States Zheng Ke Special correspondent of Global Times Yuan Ziyou Ye Man] The research on Hindenburg, an emerging short-selling institution in the United States, has caused an uproar in the capital market recently. This small company, which was established only six years ago, plunged gautam Adani, the richest man in Asia, into a quagmire, and foreign capital withdrew from the Indian stock market one after another, which made Indian Prime Minister Modi heckled by the opposition. The company named after the "air crash" dealt a heavy blow to the Indian economy with a short report.
Adani data map
Adani Group may be attacked by organized short selling again.
Singapore’s Lianhe Zaobao reported on the 5th that Adani, the richest man in Asia and chairman of Adani Group, was recently surrounded by the hungry shark-like market short selling force like a bloody whale. In a 100-page report, Hindenburg Research described the rapid rise of Adani Group as "the biggest scam in the history of enterprises".
According to National Public Radio, the market value of Adani Group has evaporated by more than 100 billion US dollars in just 10 days, and the bond price of the group has fallen to the level of junk debt. Adani’s personal net worth has also shrunk by nearly $50 billion, and the Indian tycoon who was once richer than Warren Buffett and Bill Gates has since lost the title of "Asia’s richest man".
The crisis of Adani Group is still fermenting. Moody’s, an international rating agency, warned on the 3rd that the plunge in share prices may hit the financing capacity of Adani Group. On the other hand, Standard & Poor’s downgraded the ratings of two listed companies of Adani Group from stable to negative because of the risk of rising financing costs and decreasing financing channels. The Indian Stock Exchange also suspended the stock trading of five listed companies in Adani.
Lianhe Zaobao said that as of the 5th, Adani was still unable to fully respond and explain all the accusations against his group. Now Credit Suisse has stopped accepting Adani’s bonds as collateral, and the Norwegian Petroleum Fund has also cut its stake in Adani. Many market analysts have predicted on various platforms that there will be organized short selling attacks in the market in the short term, once again targeting the enterprises of Adani Group.
The crisis of Adani Group also affected Indian politics, and the close relationship between Adani and Modi made the Indian government questioned. Reuters reported on the 4th that two Indian government officials revealed that the Indian Ministry of Enterprise Affairs had begun a preliminary review of the financial statements and other regulatory documents submitted by Adani Group for many years. On the 4th, the Indian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEBI) issued its first statement on this matter, saying that "an abnormal change in the stock price of a commercial group was observed". The market regulator also said that if any information comes to its attention, it will review it and take "appropriate action".
CNN reported that the crisis of Adani Group cast a cloud over Indian enterprises. The World Bank predicted last month that India’s economic growth will be the strongest among the major economies in 2023. However, after the release of the Hindenburg Research Report, foreign capital is accelerating its withdrawal from the Indian stock market. Chowdhury, research director of Stoxbox, an Indian stockbroker, said that the crisis of Adani Group will bring a series of troubles, and the "Indian story" is not attractive to foreign investors now.
Hindenburg research was unknown six years ago.
Hindenburg Research, the driving force behind the Adani Group crisis, is a small short-selling research institution in the United States. According to The Times of India, the founder of this institution, Nathan Anderson, lived in a small apartment in Manhattan six years ago. Anderson has rich work experience. After graduating from the University of Connecticut, he was first employed by a data company to deal with investment management companies, and then he worked as an ambulance driver in Israel for some time. In 2017, Anderson founded Hindenburg Studies in new york. The name "Hindenburg Research" comes from the airship "Hindenburg" which crashed over New Jersey in 1937. "We regard Hindenburg as a microcosm of man-made disasters that can be completely avoided," the company’s website reads. "We look for similar man-made disasters in the market and expose their evil deeds before they lure more unsuspecting victims." The agency focuses on the analysis of stocks and derivatives, aiming to find "man-made disasters" such as accounting irregularities, poor management and undisclosed related party transactions.
Although it has not been established for a long time, this young institution has made remarkable achievements in short selling in the past. According to Bloomberg statistics, since 2020, Hindenburg Research has published short-selling reports on about 30 companies, and the share prices of these companies have dropped by about 15% on average the day after the report was released, and by 26% on average six months later.
In September, 2020, Hindenburg made a name for itself by carrying out a precise attack on Nikola, a hot electric truck manufacturer at that time. According to the report of Reuters, Hindenburg research claims that Nikola cheated and misled investors in technology development. A promotional video released by Nikola shows its electric truck galloping on the highway, but a survey conducted by Hindenburg Research shows that the truck was actually towed to a hillside, and then Nikola filmed it sliding down the mountain. In addition, Hindenburg Research also collected a lot of evidence such as telephone recordings, short messages, emails and photos, accusing Nikola of making dozens of false statements about semi-trailer trucks, battery technology, hydrogen production and other aspects, calling the company a "sea of lies". After the short-selling report was published, public opinion was in an uproar, and the US Department of Justice and securities regulators followed up the investigation. The founder of Nikola was finally convicted of fraud and the company’s share price plummeted by 94%. In March, 2021, Hindenburg Research accused Lordstown, an electric vehicle manufacturer, of forging orders and misleading investors in terms of production capacity. The company’s market value once exceeded $5 billion, but now it has shrunk to less than $260 million, and its stock plunged more than 90% after the Hindenburg research short report was released.
Hindenburg Research also intervened in Musk’s acquisition of Twitter. After Hindenburg Research announced shorting Twitter, Twitter’s share price dropped from $49.80 to $37.39, and then Anderson announced that he would close his short position. In mid-July last year, when Twitter’s share price was near the low point, Hindenburg Research announced that it would switch to multi-tweeting, and Twitter’s share price rose by about 8%.
Those "muddy waters" in America
In addition to the emerging short-selling Hindenburg research, famous American short-selling institutions also include Muddy Waters, Citron Research, Melvin Capital, etc. These short-selling institutions disclose the problems of some listed companies that are overvalued or have fraudulent behaviors by issuing short-selling reports, which hit the stock prices of related companies, while short-selling institutions make profits by borrowing bonds to short. Some people think that short-selling institutions are "scavengers" in the financial market, exposing scandals of listed companies to avoid investors being cut off, but some institutions will also maliciously short for profit.
Brock, the founder of Muddy Water Company, which was established in 2010, worked in Shanghai for many years. The company’s name "Muddy Water" comes from the idiom "Fish in Muddy Water", which is intended to find out companies that are faked in the muddy water of capital, and also make profits by muddling the water of capital and shorting. The main target of Brock’s short selling is Asian companies, and China Stock Exchange is its key target. In the past ten years, Muddy Waters Company has frequently exposed its sword to China Stock Exchange. Many China companies have been attacked by Muddy Waters, and some companies have been forced to delist from the market. However, with the more frequent short-selling reports of Muddy Water Company, some media think that it is more and more like an indiscriminate attack on China Stock Exchange.
Lefort, who founded Citron Research, was called "the bounty hunter of Wall Street" by The New York Times. The agency has "attacked" 20 China companies, of which 16 have seen their share prices fall. Lefort also tried to short the American company "Game Station", but was collectively countered by retail investors, which triggered short-term short selling, and Lefort lost 100%. In January 2021, Lefort had to announce that it would stop short-selling research.
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