‘Adani-Hindenburg row not to impact India story’

New Delhi: The turmoil engulfing Gautam Adani's business empire following damning allegations by a US short seller, has not shaken the faith of global investors in India, real estate doyen KP Singh said rubbishing suggestions that banks would have lent to Adani group on instructions from higher-ups. The punishing stock market sell-off Adani group companies have seen following the January 24 report of Hindenburg Research is a temporary blip concerning just one corporate group and hasn't harmed faith in India as an investment opportunity, he said in an interview.

He, however, felt the Adani group needs to ‘beef up’ capital and cut down debt to continue to remain on the high growth trajectory. Known for his plain speaking, Singh cited how a Canadian firm had threatened to bring out a report when his retail estate firm DLF was bringing out an IPO one-and-a-half-decade back. "We said push-off (to the Canadian firm)... do whatever you can," he said, adding there are "blackmailers" who bring out reports around any big share sale. The Hindenburg report that alleged accounting fraud and stock manipulation at the Adani group, came just as a Rs 20,000 crore follow-on share sale of the conglomerate's flagship firm Adani Enterprises opened.

"Completely nonsense," he said on the Adani-Hindenburg row impacting India's attractiveness as an investment destination. "India is too big a country today. So this story will die down. Investment will not be hurt." Modi is "a sensible and dynamic person" and "so long as he remains Prime Minister India will remain an attractive destination, he said. The apples-to-airport conglomerate has denied all allegations, calling them "malicious", "baseless" and a "calculated attack on India".

The Adani group's listed firm lost about USD 125 billion in market value in three weeks after the report. Some recovery has been seen in the last couple of days. While the group's rapid expansion - from cement to hydrogen and data centres, has largely been fuelled by debt funding, Singh, who is now chairman emeritus of DLF, said suggestions that banks lent money to the Adani group because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi telling them to do so was rubbish. "What has the prime minister got to do with it (lending money to a corporate)? No banker, even if the prime minister tells anything, will give money unless it is justified," he said.

"I have no clues about Adani but if somebody thinks today that a call from the prime minister will make bankers give (loan) then they are living in a fool's world. No banker will do this thing," he said.