Hindenburg Report / Adani Group

About

Hindenburg Report / Adani Group refers to memes and discussions about Indian businessman Gautam Adani's business conglomerate Adani Group, and a report alleging widescale stock manipulation and fraud from the U.S.-based research firm "Hindenburg Research." In January 2023, Adani group opened up to investors buying more shares (FPO), and Hindenburg released its report criticizing the company. Soon after the report's release, Adani Group canceled the FPO, causing further discussion about the report's accuracy.

Origin

In November 2022, news about Gautam Adani's business conglomerate Adani Group announcing an "FPO" or follow-on public offering began to spread.^[1][2] Adani reportedly planned to raise 20,000 Crore or 200 billion rupees (~$2.5B) to cover its flagship company, Adani Enterprises', new ventures in green and digital businesses, as well as pay off its borrowings. The move was expected to be the largest public offering in India.

On November 22nd, 2022, Twitter^[3] user @REDBOXINDIA tweeted, "ADANI ENT HAS INITIATED FPO TO RAISE 20000 CRS FROM RETAIL AND INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS" (seen below, left). On January 20th, 2023, Twitter^[4] user @SanaSecurities posted a tweet that read, "The irony of Adani FPO is that the company is openly saying we need money to pay back our bank loans, and investors be like – Yes, please take from us. 🤦," gathering over 300 likes in two weeks (seen below, right).

On January 24th, 2023, U.S.-based research firm Hindenburg Research announced the results of their investigation into Adani Group, publishing their critical report and posting a series of tweets outlining their findings. The firm also shorted Adani stocks. Their official Twitter^[5] account, @HindenburgRes, gathered over 40,000 likes and 12 million views on their thread (seen below). The report is titled, "Adani Group – How The World’s 3rd Richest Man Is Pulling The Largest Con In Corporate History." On January 25th, 2023, Adani Group's official Twitter^[6] account, @AdaniOnline, put out a media statement regarding the report, gathering over 3,000 likes and 500,000 views (seen below, right).

Spread

Discussions about the accuracies and supposed biases in the report began to circulate in Indian internet circles soon after. Adani Group released a 400 page report rebutting the claims of fraud detailed in the Hindenburg report, and tweeted a link to the document on January 29th, 2023.^[7][8] Hindenburg Research posted a reply to Adani Group on January 26th, noting that it did not adequately respond to the 88 questions posed by the initial investigative report.^[13]

On February 1st, 2023, Twitter^[9] user @Memeghnad posted a series of tweets outlining major news headlines that unfolded after the FPO and report were released (seen below). The thread took note of Adani Group rescinding and refunding shares to investors.

On January 30th, the Instagram page @mememandir posted memes about the Adani Group and the Hindenburg Report, gathering over 17,000 likes^[10] (seen below, left) and 14,000 likes^[11] (seen below, right) in three days. The latter referenced the Name Soundalikes meme.

Also on January 30th, Instagram^[12] page @luxx.ded posted a meme about Adani, gathering over 5,000 likes in three days (seen below, left). On February 2nd, Twitter^[14] user @zhr_jafri posted a meme about Adani Group's financials being as volatile as an Indian tech start-up's. The tweet gathered over 2,000 likes in a day (seen below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References