London
CNN
—
Indian billionaire Gautam Adani on Wednesday abandoned a deal to raise $2.5 billion from investors after allegations of fraud by an American short seller triggered a week-long meltdown in the value of his business empire.
The share sale — the largest offering by a company already listed on India’s stock market — had closed successfully just 24 hours earlier. His flagship company, Adani Enterprises, had found enough willing backers despite days of market turmoil following the publication of a scathing analysis by Hindenburg Research.
But a brutal day of trading Wednesday wiped billions more off the value of his companies. The conglomerate has seen its value plunge by about 90 billion since the Hindenburg report was published. So Adani reversed course, announcing his decision in a stock exchange filing after 10 p.m. local time.
“Today the market has been unprecedented, and our stock price has fluctuated over the course of the day,” Adani said in a statement. “Given these extraordinary circumstances, the company’s board felt that going ahead with the [share] issue will not be morally correct,” he added.
Adani Enterprises said it was working with its bankers to refund investors who subscribed to the share sale.
This is a developing story and will be updated.