The voluntary termination of Hindenburg Research has thrown the spotlight back on Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi) investigations into the Adani group following the short-seller’s report in January 2023 where it accused it of stock manipulation and accounting fraud — a charge denied by the conglomerate .

The market regulator has completed all the 24 investigations into the matter including alleged breach of minimum public shareholding (MPS) rules, related party transactions, alleged violation of foreign portfolio investment (FPI) norms and insider trading regulations.

The Hindenburg shutdown comes a little over a month of the end of Sebi chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch's tenure on February 28.

While the Centre has refrained from making any comments on Buch's tenure, there has been speculation she is is unlikely to get an extension.

Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch was also the target of the US short-seller, which alleged the duo had stakes in obscure offshore funds used in the ``Adani money siphoning scandal’’.

The market regulator has come under criticism for its the slow progress of its investigations.

After a probe, Sebi starts enforcement proceedings which comprise show cause notices and giving the parties an opportunity to hear their positions. After this process is completed, an order is issued.

While Sebi has not offered any status update, four Adani group firms have disclosed after their second quarter results that the regulator has issued show cause notices (SCNs).

Apart from these group firms, Sebi had reportedly issued SCNs to other entities that included Gautam Adani, and his brothers Vinod and Rajesh.

Some of them are learnt have submitted settlement proposals which do not amount to admission or denial of guilt. The status of these applications is not known.

Sebi in a status report released in August 2023 said its probe into the 24 issues were categorised under four segments.

The first pertains to the violation of Rule 19A of the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Rules, 1957 which prescribed that a listed company must have a minimum public float of 25 per cent.

The second bucket covered the allegations relating to the manipulation of stock prices. There were two separate investigations: the report said the regulator conducted an analysis of trading by three separate FPI clusters in seven Adani group companies including group flagship Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd.

Sebi had then said the third bucket covered 13 separate investigations into undisclosed related party transactions relating to entities involved in mining operations in Australia, transactions relating to PMC Projects (India) Ltd — which Hindenburg in its January 2023 had labelled as the group’s “dummy firm”.

The last bucket covered the allegations of insider trading in Adani Power, Ambuja Cements, and Adani Green Energy Ltd. The probe covered the period from June 2018 to January 2020.

Stock gains

Adani group shares rallied up to 15.60 per cent on Thursday.

Analysts point out the Street is watching the next steps that will be taken by the US authorities after Donald Trump comes to power.

NDTV was the topmost gainer among the group stocks with its shares gaining of 9.83 per cent on the BSE. It was followed by Ambuja Cements which rose 3.96 per cent and Adani Green Energy, 3.35 per cent.

The other gainers on Thursday included Adani Power and Adani Ports.