Adani to staff after SEBI closure: 'Cloud that hung over us lifted; time to accelerate'

In an internal message to staff, billionaire businessman Gautam Adani said his group will now shift towards accelerating innovation, improving transparency, and building for long-term impact. This comes days after receiving a clean chit from SEBI over the Hindenburg allegations.

“Today, a cloud that had hung over us for more than two years has been lifted,” Adani said in the message, according to a report in PTI. “SEBI’s comprehensive investigation has concluded by rejecting all allegations contained in the Hindenburg report from January 2023.”

Hindenburg's allegations

The January 2023 Hindenburg report accused the group of accounting irregularities, stock price manipulation, and the use of opaque offshore entities – allegations that triggered a selloff across Adani’s listed companies and erased more than USD 150 billion in market capitalisation at one point.

Also read: SEBI clears Gautam Adani and firm of Hindenburg allegations

Adani Group repeatedly denied the allegations made by Hindenburg, which has since disbanded.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) last week dismissed some of Hindenburg's claims.

In two separate orders, it said there was no evidence of the conglomerate using related-party transactions to route funds into its listed units, and that the transactions, cited by Hindenburg, did not meet the definition of a related party.

'Multidimensional assault'

Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani called the allegations part of a “targeted, multidimensional assault” and credited his employees for maintaining operational momentum despite global scrutiny. “This attack was never just a market event.”

Also read: Adani Group shares surge after SEBI dismisses Hindenburg claims

He credited the group's workforce for continuing to execute major infrastructure projects during the scrutiny. Ports, power plants, airports, and renewable energy projects continued to expand as the group faced reputational and legal pressure.

“While the world debated about us, our ports expanded, transmission lines stretched farther, power plants ran reliably, renewable projects continued to green the world, airports advanced, cement furnaces fired away, and logistics teams delivered flawlessly,” he said. “You proved that execution under pressure is the truest test of character, and that the Adani character is simply unbreakable.”

Group's priorities

He added that the company had emerged stronger and laid out future priorities, including a focus on transparency, innovation, long-term value creation, and transformation.

Also read: Delhi court sets aside govt order on journalists over Adani Enterprises

“Integrity and transparency must remain the foundation of everything we do - inseparable, uncompromising, and safeguarded relentlessly,” he said.

Other priorities will include accelerating innovation in energy, logistics and infrastructure; building a legacy that endures for decades beyond headlines; and embracing transformation to shape the future rather than be shaped by it, he added.

Adani group, he said, must accelerate its pace of innovation and drive bold advances in energy, logistics, and other infrastructure that push the very edges of possibility. “We must build not for today's applause but for a legacy that endures for decades. Headlines fade, but what we create must leave its mark on history.”

Asking employees to embrace transformation, he said, the future will march forward with or without us. “Either we shape the future into what we dream or be shaped by the future into what we fear.”

Adani thanks staff

The tycoon struck a personal note in thanking staff for supporting him through the turmoil.

“I know the quiet anxieties your families felt, the doubts even you may have felt at times, and yet, day after day, you showed up-you fought for my beliefs,” Adani said.

He pointed to the group’s operational resilience, noting that “while the world debated about us, our ports expanded, transmission lines stretched farther, power plants ran reliably, renewable projects continued to green the world, airports advanced, cement furnaces fired away, and logistics teams delivered flawlessly.”

Adani also framed the controversy as an ‘agnipariksha’ (trial by fire), saying every crisis deepens foundations and strengthens resolve. He warned employees that more tests would follow, but urged them to draw confidence from the group's performance under pressure.

In his closing lines, Adani urged employees to let the group's story stand for "courage, conviction, and a promise we all kept to our motherland, Bharat". He signed off with 'Satyameva Jayate, Jai Hind'.

(With agency inputs)