Mahua Moitra of the Trinamool Congress has warned investors after reports claimed that Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP, the auditor of billionaire Gautam Adani’s ports business, is planning to resign.
“Now we’re waiting for ED, CBI, SFIO to raid Deloitte! How can they refuse to audit Govt’s most pyaara group. On a more serious note - investor’s beware,” the TMC firebrand MP wrote on X (formally Twitter) sharing a screenshot of a news report by Bloomberg.
The Bloomberg report, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP has communicated to Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd. its resignation plans and a formal announcement is expected in the coming days.
{{/usCountry}}The Bloomberg report, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP has communicated to Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd. its resignation plans and a formal announcement is expected in the coming days.
{{/usCountry}}The move may heighten concerns about accounting quality at the Indian conglomerate targeted by short seller Hindenburg Research, the report claimed.
The Indian unit of the global accounting giant in May raised concerns over transactions between Adani Ports and three entities that Adani said were unrelated parties. The auditor said at the time it couldn’t verify Adani’s claims and couldn’t determine if the business was fully compliant with local laws.
Deloitte, however, said it could not attest to the company's statement as no independent external examination has been done to prove the claims, news agency PTI reported.
The planned resignation puts a fresh spotlight on the governance of Adani’s empire just days before the Securities and Exchange Board of India is due to submit the results of a probe into Hindenburg’s wide-ranging allegations of accounting fraud and market manipulation. Adani has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and a panel appointed by the Supreme Court found no regulatory failure or signs of stock price manipulation.
Hindenburg Research report on Adani group
Hindenburg Research in its January 24 report that levelled allegations of fraud, stock manipulation, and money laundering against the Adani group, had also flagged inadequate disclosures of related party transactions.
Deloitte had stated that the Adani group did not consider it necessary to have an independent external examination of these allegations because of their evaluation and the ongoing investigation by the SEBI.
"The evaluation performed by the Group does not constitute sufficient appropriate audit evidence for the purposes of our audit," Deloitte had said in notes to APSEZ financial statement.
The six-member expert panel appointed by the Supreme Court in May found no regulatory failure or signs of price manipulation in the Adani Group stocks in its interim report.
The transactions flagged by Deloitte included engineering, procurement and construction (PEC) purchase contracts with a subsidiary of a party identified in the Hindenburg report.
(With inputs from Bloomberg and PTI)