Adani $2.5B share sale pushes through amid fraud claims

NEW DELHI (AP) — The closely watched $2.5 billion share sale launched by Asia’s richest man, Gautam Adani, was fully subscribed on Tuesday, bucking expectations after a turbulent week in which the conglomerate’s shares plunged in a tussle with a U.S. short-seller.

Before trading closed on Tuesday, over 100% of shares in the Indian group’s flagship Adani Enterprises was subscribed, according to Bombay Stock Exchange. While some Adani-linked shares went up, three were still down between 5% to 10%.

The share sale and its success were seen as a crucial test of investor confidence in Adani, whose sprawling empire shed tens of billions of dollars within a week after Hindenburg Research accused the conglomerate of stock market manipulation and fraud.

Adani, 60, has since slid on Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index from being the world’s third richest person to the 11th, as his net worth shrank more than $30 billion to an estimated $84 billion.

Hindenburg, which said it was betting against the Adani Group, accused it of “pulling the largest con in corporate history”. It said it judged the seven key Adani listed companies to have an “85% downside, purely on a fundamental basis owing to sky-high valuations.”

The short-selling firm said its report followed a two-year investigation. Most of the allegations involved concerns about the group’s debt levels, activities of top executives, use of offshore shell companies to artificially boost share prices and past investigations into fraud. It listed 88 questions for the group to answer.

On Sunday, the Adani Group dismissed Hindenburg’s allegations and issued a 413-page report that rejected its questions, saying none of them were “based on independent or journalistic fact finding.” Adani’s response included documents and data tables and...