Adani-Hindenburg: Fund Set Up By Kotak Mahindra Bank Used To Short Sell Adani Enterprises

Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India has alleged that foreign portfolio investor Kingdon Capital Management LLC and its entities collaborated with Hindenburg Research LLC to short sell Adani Enterprise futures in the Indian derivatives market and shared profits.

SEBI investigation found that Hindenburg colluded with Mark Kingdon and his entities in a scheme devised to use advance knowledge of non-public information to build short positions.

The scheme involved sharing of draft report, waiting for Kingdon to set up trading account, agreeing to reduced profit sharing and publishing report in a pre-planned manner at the time of FPO, claiming non-association with the Indian securities market, squaring off for short sale profit and creating of India fund for Adani trade.

The regulator alleged that Kingdon entered into a legal agreement with Hindenburg Research to share the draft report in advance with the foreign investor, before it was officially released on Jan. 24, 2023.

SEBI has issued a show cause notice to Hindenburg Research, and its sole beneficial owner, Nathan Anderson, along with Mark Kingdon who is the Ultimate Beneficial Owner of Mauritius-based entities, for trading violations in the scrip of Adani Enterprises, leading up to Hindenburg Report and thereafter.

The regulator has alleged that Hindenburg and Anderson have violated regulations under SEBI Act, SEBI’s Prevention of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices regulations, SEBI’s Code of Conduct for Research Analyst regulations.

FPI Kingdon has allegedly violated SEBI Act, SEBI’s Prevention of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices regulations, SEBI’s Code of Conduct for Foreign Portfolio Investors.

According to the show cause notice, a copy of which has been reviewed by NDTV Profit, SEBI has alleged that prior to report release, short selling activity was witnessed in the Futures of Adani Enterprises and after the report the share lost 59% between Jan. 24, 2023 and Feb. 22, 2023. Adani Enterprises was in the midst of a follow-on public offer when the Hindenburg report was released. The FPO was subsequently withdrawn by the Adani group in the interest of the shareholders.

The SEBI investigation revealed that K-India Opportunities Fund – Class F opened a trading account and started trading in the scrip of Adani Enterprises before the release of report. The FPI then squared off the positions in February making a profit of $22.25 million or Rs 183.24 crore. This fund only traded Adani Enterprises on the National Stock Exchange.

Hindenburg in its response has alleged that Kotak Mahindra Investment Ltd. had created and oversaw the offshore fund structure used by Kingdon to bet against Adani. The market regulator in its show cause notice said Kotak entered into investment advisory agreement on Jan. 5, 2023 between KMIL and Kingdon Capital, which showed urgency in a hurry to create the trading account. Kingdon Capital made all trading decisions for the FPI.

SEBI has claimed that the US-based short seller shared the draft of the report with Kingdon in November 2022. The draft was ‘substantially the same’ to the final report.

SEBI alleges that Kingdon took legal confirmation before entering into a research services agreement with Hindenburg, pursuant to which, it received the draft report used to make investment before the report was made public.

Kingdon Capital, as per the research agreement, agreed to share 25% of the profit share instead of 30%. The decline in profit shares was due to cost, structure and time taken to set up the structure of KIOF trading account, to short-sell shares of Adani Enterprises in India.

Kingdon’s Master Fund, after setting up the KIOF account and receiving the draft report, transferred $40 million to trading account of KIOF and converted $18 million in Indian rupees to the margin account for trading. The trading account was activated on Jan. 10 to build up short positions in the Adani Enterprise Futures.

The fund took short positions of 850,000 shares by Jan. 20 and accounted for as much as 7.01% of the total open interest position before the report was published. The fund further rolled over the positions to February futures, before the release of the report and squared off the positions between Feb. 1 and Feb. 22 to make a profit of Rs 183.24 crore.

Kingdon was required to share $5.52 million in profit with Hindenburg but paid $2.7 million and $1.38 million to Hindenburg on March 31, 2023, and June 1, 2023, pursuant to invoices raised by the US short seller. It held back $1.38 million as it continued to have investment in K India Opportunities Fund. The balance was to be paid once the fund is withdrawn.

SEBI said that details received from Interactive Broker LLC via US Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that Hindenburg traded in bond of Adani group outside India. It traded in the bonds of Adani Electricity Mumbai Ltd., Adani Green Energy Ltd., Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd. between November 2022 and March 2023. It was observed that Hindenburg made an overall loss of $5,197 from trading in the bonds. The US-based short seller also took positions in the ETF and MSCI India Index on Jan. 24, 2023.

SEBI in its show cause notice said that Hindenburg report contained certain misrepresentations and inaccurate statements, which built a convenient narrative through selective disclosures, catchy headlines to cause panic in Adani share prices, thereby deflating the prices of the Adani group stocks.

Hindenburg has claimed that it did not provide research notice to Kingdon prior to sharing of the draft report and Kingdon did not share the trading notice to Hindenburg before the report was shared publicly through mass email.

Disclaimer: NDTV Profit is a subsidiary of AMG Media Networks Limited, an Adani Group Company.