By Lisa Pauline Mattackal
(Reuters) – Hindenburg Research’s founder Nathan Anderson announced on Wednesday he would disband the firm whose short reports on companies typically led to sharp plunges in the stock prices, and in some cases, investigations by authorities.
The firm bet against publicly listed companies they believed had accounting issues, was being mismanaged or committing fraud, typically following a long period of investigation. The firm would then publicly release those findings.
Here are some of Hindenburg’s most notable shorts and how the companies have fared since:
ADANI GROUP
Adani Group is perhaps Hindenburg’s most famous target, helmed by Gautam Adani who is one of the world’s richest men.
Hindenburg accused the Indian conglomerate of stock manipulation and accounting fraud on Jan. 24, 2023 after what it said was a two-year investigation. The Adani Group called the report baseless.
Shares of Adani’s publicly listed companies plummeted following the report, losing billions in market value and eventually leading to India’s Supreme Court asking market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India to probe the allegations.
The regulator’s probe found there was no evident pattern of manipulative contribution to the stock’s rise.
In a follow up report on Aug. 10, 2024, Hindenburg alleged the head of SEBI previously held investments in offshore funds also used by the Adani Group.
Shares of several of Adani’s companies have yet to regain the ground they lost after the report. Since Jan. 24, 2023, Adani Energy Solutions is down 71.32%, Adani Total Gas has lost 82.7%, and flagship Adani Enterprises is down about 30%.
Adani Ports and Adani Power are up about 51% and 105%, respectively, since the report.
U.S. prosecutors indicted Gautam Adani in November over an alleged scheme to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes and conceal the scheme from investors.
Adani was the world’s third richest person at the time of the original Hindenburg report, according to Forbes, but has since slipped to 25th.
NIKOLA
Hindenburg’s short of U.S.-based electric truck maker Nikola in September 2020 is one of its best-known short bets. The firm alleged Nikola and its founder, Trevor Milton, were misleading investors about its battery technology and vehicle design.
One statement challenged a Nikola promotional video which showed its truck cruising at high speed, when in fact the vehicle was rolling down a hill.
Milton stepped down as executive chairman a few weeks after the report was released. He was convicted of fraud by a U.S. jury in 2022 over allegations he lied to investors.
Nikola shares now trade at just $1.23, down over 99% since the report’s release.
ICAHN ENTERPRISES
Hindenburg accused billionaire investor Carl Icahn’s Icahn Enterprises LP of running a “Ponzi-like” scheme to pay dividends, and raised questions about Icahn’s margin borrowing.
Icahn later agreed to pay $2 million in penalties in a settlement with U.S. regulators, after a probe which he said was sparked by Hindenburg’s allegations.
Icahn said the outcome allowed him to put to rest Hindenburg’s “scurrilous and unsupported” accusations.
Since the report’s release on May 2, 2023, shares of Icahn Enterprises are down nearly 82%.
LORDSTOWN MOTORS
Electric truck maker Lordstown Motors appeared on Hindenburg’s radar in March 2021, after the short seller claimed the company had misled investors on its product’s demand.
The company’s CEO Stephen Burns stepped down a few months after the report, as an investigation by its board found most of its stated 100,000 commercial fleet preorders were from intermediaries that had agreed to find buyers for the trucks.
The company later settled with the SEC over claims it had misled investors. It filed for bankruptcy in 2023.
Other notable Hindenburg shorts and their stock performance since the report:
Company Hindenburg Stock
Report Date performance
Carvana January 2, 2025 7.20%
Sezzle December 18, -17.70%
2024
Roblox October 8, 2024 54%
Block Inc March 23, 2023 16.60%
DraftKings June 15, 2021 -23.60%
Riot Platforms December 11,2017 -15%
Super Micro August 27, 2024 -44.80%
Computer
(Reporting by Lisa Mattackal in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
