Adani auditor flagged as shady in Hindenburg report, resigns

Months have passed since the Adani Group's surge towards further expansion was stopped in its tracks by the Hindenburg Research report, which continues to haunt the firm. Revelations such as Vinod Adani's name linked with offshore companies, to a firm named by Hindenburg involved in a coal auction with Adani, further keep the report relevant in the market.

The latest addition to the list is the resignation of Shah Dhandharia and company, an audit firm hired by Adani, flagged by Hindenburg Research.

In the eye of a storm

• The firm has quit as the auditor for Adani Total Gas, and has stated that the resignation does not result from an inability to find audit evidence.

• It is also the auditor for Adani Group's flagship firm Adani Enterprises, which was launching a Rs 20,000 crore follow-on public offer when the Hindenburg report emerged.

• Hindenburg questioned the links between Shah Dhandharia and Dharmesh Parikh, both auditing most of Adani's firms.

Shady origins and history?

• Apart from the governance issue, it also mentioned how Shah Dhandharia doesn't have a working website and its archives show only four partners and 11 employees.

• The firm only had a 23-year-old and 24-year-old to audit Adani firms and the only other listed entity they worked for has a market value of just Rs 64 crore.

• As for now, Shah Dhandharia will continue auditing Adani Enterprises, but at Adani Total Gas it will be replaced by Walker Chandiok, which has also worked with clients such as ICICI.