Almost a month after a bombshell short seller report lopped off Rs 10.91 lakh crore ($132 billion) in market value from Gautam Adani’s empire, the Indian billionaire has hired top-shelf US crisis communication and legal teams, scrapped a $850 million coal plant purchase, reined in expenses, repaid some debt and promises to repay more.
The ports-to-power conglomerate helmed by Adani — who used to be Asia’s richest person — is hoping to claw back the narrative with this playbook and calm jittery investors and lenders after US-based Hindenburg Research on Jan. 24 accused it of accounting fraud, stock manipulation and other corporate governance lapses. The Adani Group denies these allegations.
