#AdaniEnterpises recouped all losses triggered by #Hindenburg's allegations.
Mahesh Jethmalani, Mohandas Pai, Ajay Srivastava, and Sanjay Asher discuss the rebound, in conversation with Tamanna Inamdar. #NDTVProfitLive
Mahesh Jethmalani, Mohandas Pai, Ajay Srivastava, and Sanjay Asher discuss the rebound, in conversation with Tamanna Inamdar. #NDTVProfitLive
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00:00 Adani Enterprises, the flagship of the Adani Group has raised all losses in stock prices
00:19 nearly 15 months after claims made by short seller Hindenburg.
00:23 Now, the claims in January 2023 were just the beginning of a series of concerted attacks
00:29 on the Adani Group that runs ports, airports and yes, this media group as well.
00:34 But these claims, reports and a narrative pushed by vested interests have now been rubbished
00:41 by the collective wisdom of the stock market.
00:45 Today, we will put out facts and get you voices that make it clear that the stock market,
00:52 investors and those who are backing the India growth story have completely demolished these
00:58 constant attacks.
01:00 Look at three things very clearly.
01:02 One, the fact that Adani Enterprises has recouped its market cap since Hindenburg.
01:08 Two, Campto Fitzgerald has now come out with a report.
01:14 It's an American financial services company since 1945 and has put out a report rubbishing
01:19 the latest hit job and in fact set a target price for the Adani Enterprise stock nearly
01:25 40% over the last close.
01:27 The market is also recognizing the fundamentals of Adani Enterprises and these are some of
01:32 the facts we're going to put forward to you.
01:34 In fact, Samina, let me come to you on that part.
01:36 The fundamentals of the group companies and Adani Ent specifically since January 2023.
01:45 One thing for sure, Tamana, they've improved significantly.
01:47 But let's talk about the stock performance first.
01:50 Adani Enterprise has clawed back losses of more than $30 billion and it's not just Adani
01:56 Enterprise.
01:57 Five of the 10 listed Adani Group stocks are now trading above the levels seen before the
02:02 Hindenburg report.
02:05 Investors that we've talked to, advisors that we're talking to are looking at Adani Group
02:09 as a pure policy play and since there is a clear direction on the country's policy, we
02:15 are seeing a sharp recovery is their belief.
02:19 Adani Ports, Adani SEZ and Adani Power are stocks that are trading at record levels and
02:25 have given out 35% gains year to date.
02:29 Well, that's not all.
02:31 The factors we believe that are driving the stock apart from very strong fundamentals
02:36 and a very clear visible growth story in the earnings is the fact that Adani Enterprise
02:41 will now replace Wipro to become part of the Sensex.
02:46 That's a report put out by IFL and that was one big reason the stock rallied lock, stock
02:51 and barrel in trade yesterday.
02:52 There are also reports from Cantor Fitzgerald that Tamannaah mentioned where they rubbished
02:57 FT reports and reinstated their faith in the Adani Enterprise stock and they continue to
03:03 believe that Adani Enterprise is a proxy play to India's infrastructure.
03:08 Apart from that, their numbers like we said have looked phenomenal and have seen a clear
03:11 improvement from 2021 to 2024 as we see it.
03:16 Consolidated EBITDA has grown to Rs. 13,237 crores in F520 from Rs. 3,259 crores in F521.
03:28 Interest coverage ratio stands at 3.6 as compared to 2.8 in F521.
03:33 Their debt service coverage which is an important parameter to determine the health of the balance
03:38 sheet of a company has also improved significantly to 2.5 times versus 1.7 seen in F521.
03:45 The net debt equity ratio also at 0.7 times in F524 and net debt EBITDA which is again
03:52 an important fundamental parameter to look at the health of a company stands at 2.3 times.
03:57 So all that put together has meant that investors, mutual funds have all enjoyed the rally that
04:04 Adani Group stocks witnessed yesterday and they do believe there is a lot more to come.
04:09 So what are the key questions that we are asking today and we will just introduce our
04:12 panelists as well.
04:13 We are talking about whether these constant attacks are now completely losing their credibility.
04:21 Is the market now rubbishing them and what are the fundamentals at play here.
04:25 To speak on this I am joined by Sanjay Asher, he is Senior Partner at Crawford & Bailey,
04:29 TV Mohandas Pai, Chairman of R& Capital joins us on the show today.
04:32 We are speaking with Ajay Srivastav, MD at Dimension Consulting and we will go across
04:36 first to Mahesh Jethmalani, Senior Advocate and MP in the Rajya Sabha.
04:41 Mr. Jethmalani, let me come to you first with, really let's get to the point.
04:46 The latest attack so to speak is from London based Financial Times which has cited documents
04:51 from George Soros backed OCCRP and has repeatedly targeted Indian interests under Mr. Modi's
04:59 government.
05:01 Do you think this is agenda driven?
05:03 No, no, this is purely agenda driven.
05:08 You saw what the Supreme Court did the last time with the Hindenburg report backed by
05:12 George Soros, again OCRP, Organisation for Uncovering Organised Crime.
05:18 I mean they themselves have been investigated according to me, it's one of the biggest organised
05:22 racket this OORCP.
05:23 San, you know what happened in the Supreme Court last time?
05:25 The Supreme Court last time actually said that the whole report was based, there was
05:30 a Supreme Court committee which went into the whole issue and the Supreme Court after
05:34 examining the committee's report said that the entire issue was based on selective information
05:39 and completely false and there was no need for any further investigation into the Adani
05:46 issue and they said that they gave him a complete clean sheet.
05:51 And you know, in fact, as you know, $150 billion of market cap was lost as a result
05:58 of that obvious bear.
05:59 It was a bear hammering operation and it was people acting in concert, overseas people
06:05 hostile to the Adani group and they thought impliedly to the Prime Minister and to India's
06:12 growing economy and with their local allies, you know who they were, people who've been
06:18 expelled from Parliament and who have got no relief from the Supreme Court against that
06:23 expulsion.
06:24 The Hindenburg report and the business rival, Mr. Darshan Hirendandani, most of their information
06:32 and questions became the foundation of that hit job.
06:35 Now, I suppose the present one you are talking about is that poor quality coal, right, which
06:41 was imported for Indonesia.
06:43 First of all, the much speaking but ill-informed Mr. Rahul Gandhi should realize that this
06:49 transaction of import from Indonesia took place in January 2014.
06:56 What this country should do is arrest the Minister for Coal at that time under Dr. Manmohan
07:01 Singh's government and find out how this happened.
07:04 By the way, it happened in January 2014, throughout the period, the UPA was in power and it happened
07:10 to an export to a port in Tamil Nadu.
07:14 The so-called low quality coal was sold as high quality fuel to the state coal corporation
07:20 in Tamil Nadu.
07:21 All right, so who was in power in Tamil Nadu was probably the DMK or the AIDMK.
07:25 I don't remember that.
07:26 Okay, so that is, of course, the sort of political view, Mr. Jaitmalani.
07:31 But I just want to put out for our viewers what Cantor Fitzgerald has said.
07:35 And they are talking very specifically about how, A, this is an old case, which has been
07:41 raked up again, and we'll run those lines of what this financial services firm has said
07:46 in its report.
07:48 They say that the group imported low quality was a claim, FD claim not possible, given
07:53 payment based on testing.
07:55 Essentially, the person importing it tests it, which is why those claims are not plausible.
08:02 Now that really is the question, isn't it, Mohandas Pai?
08:06 And let me come to you on this, that these claims are now being dismissed, their credibility
08:12 is falling.
08:13 But what is the genesis of this claim?
08:16 Because we keep seeing this pattern emerging.
08:19 And what do you read into this pattern?
08:21 You see, FD has become a yellow rag, because they become a mouthpiece for vested interest
08:27 to put out fake information without testing.
08:30 Even the way they went after Adani earlier was terrible.
08:34 Look, the whole Adani issue is a conspiracy driven by George Soros.
08:38 Why am I saying that?
08:39 Because remember, George Soros made a statement in Davos, Modi will have to answer on Adani
08:44 to Parliament.
08:45 Now, that means attack on Modi, because they think Adani is close to Modi, is attack on
08:50 Adani as an instrument.
08:53 And it is an indication that he's controlling some people who may go to the Indian Parliament
08:58 and try to create buckets for the government, because he's against the Modi government and
09:02 he's made it very clear.
09:04 Now, George Soros has spread a lot of people in this country, NGOs who are at his beck
09:07 and call and his payroll.
09:09 I think you know all the people.
09:11 He's got many lawyers who is funded and he's funded the NGOs who are at the beck and call.
09:15 And through them, they connected with possibly many, many politicians who are at the beck
09:19 and call, except that all these politicians forgot.
09:23 They were, by their action and trying to create panic and trying to give fake information,
09:29 helping an overseas, you know, overseas vulture short-seller make more money.
09:36 We don't know whether George Soros himself sold, you know, Adani shot.
09:42 We don't know whether he is an investor in that Hindenburg.
09:45 We don't know to whom all Hindenburg gave out the information before they released the
09:49 report.
09:50 And in India, all of them joined together to help a foreign vulture fund make more money
09:55 by damaging the stock.
09:56 I mean, it's ridiculous, isn't it?
09:57 It's a total conspiracy and it carries on.
10:00 And the people like FT have fallen prey to the conspiracy.
10:02 I read an article which said that the FT editor is on some advisory board for Soros.
10:07 So Soros is a big manipulator.
10:09 He's been a manipulator all his life.
10:11 And he's been manipulating all this for some time in the hope of collecting and making
10:16 a brownie points politically.
10:17 And our politicians have fallen into the trap.
10:20 It's ridiculous.
10:21 All these people in India were the mouthpiece of Soros who have sold their souls for a few
10:26 petty dollars to be exposed.
10:28 So people know about this.
10:30 But you know, there are two or three points that Adani has to really look at seriously.
10:35 There's a governance challenge for Adani because Adani has become so victim in India.
10:39 I'll come to you on that, Mr. Pai.
10:41 I'll come to you on that.
10:42 It's an important point.
10:43 I just want to take this forward because we're focusing right now, for now, on what the markets
10:48 have been doing, on what the markets have been doing.
10:51 And you know, you talked about how this is seen as a conspiracy.
10:53 I want to get a market voice in on this.
10:55 And you know, Samina, you were just talking about buy calls from a couple of brokerages
10:59 as well and the market perspective on it.
11:02 You're right.
11:03 In fact, it's not just Cantor, Fis, Gerald.
11:04 In the last few months, you had the likes of global brokerages, the likes of Citi and
11:09 Jefferies putting out very aggressive buy calls on Adani Enterprise.
11:12 Ajay, come in on this one.
11:15 You've studied the stock.
11:16 You've studied the market trend.
11:17 You've studied fundamentals largely of the large companies.
11:21 In the last couple of months, Adani Enterprise has created more investor wealth than most
11:26 of the large companies that we talk about today.
11:29 Do you feel like Adani Enterprise is a great proxy to play the infrastructure?
11:34 And this could potentially be the start or the surface?
11:37 Or we're just about scratching the surface in that case?
11:40 Well, you know, I don't comment on stocks, but the point is, answer is yes.
11:45 It is a good proxy for quite a bit of industries because it is a number of industries and has
11:50 been incubating the new ideas, including the sector of the data warehousing, which is coming
11:55 up there.
11:56 The airport sector sits there.
11:58 So I think, you know, in a manner of speaking, you are actually investing into like a private
12:02 equity fund in the infrastructure story of India.
12:05 When you invest in a company like Adani Enterprises, of course, you may have different perceptions
12:09 of the valuation.
12:10 But the answer is the fact that this is one company which has incubated four large companies
12:15 which are out of total gas, green energy ports, and now is incubating four more or five more
12:22 new sectors in the economy.
12:24 So for an average retail investor, it's a good way to get into these companies, get
12:28 into the industry at a very nascent stage.
12:32 And this is an opportunity which you can't get otherwise.
12:34 Like if I want to go into, let's say the data center business, I can't go buy shares in
12:38 that.
12:39 But knowing the fact that there is a company which is investing heavily into it and will,
12:43 as a stated policy, spin it out, demerge the business, so I'll get the shares of the company,
12:47 it becomes a very good proxy for retail investors to get into this company.
12:52 Having said that, one has to be cognizant of the valuations.
12:56 You know, leave aside the political rhetoric which we just heard or whatever happened.
13:00 Every large company goes through this.
13:02 Microsoft is going through this, Meta goes through this, Dhirubhai Ambani went through
13:05 this, Reliance went through this, and today, you know, where Reliance is versus when it
13:09 started.
13:10 So, you know, so these attacks are not new.
13:13 Investors are well-known about it.
13:14 The problem started only when the attacks happened.
13:17 These shares were owned only by retail.
13:19 Please note in 2021, barely any mutual fund, or '22, barely any mutual fund owned these
13:25 stocks.
13:26 And therefore, there was literally no stability when these allegations came out.
13:30 Investors lost a lot of money.
13:31 We don't know who made the money.
13:33 So while one investor should be aware that these are expensive stocks, by any fundamental
13:39 logic, all the stocks are expensive.
13:41 They can see ups and downs.
13:42 They will see these attacks on them.
13:44 But the bottom line remains, this is what you rightly said, most effective way to go
13:49 into the new sectors of the economy where the shares you could not have bought on your
13:53 own.
13:54 So our answer is yes, for an investor, these are the opportunities you will get it.
13:58 Sometimes it is too expensive.
14:00 You can average down.
14:01 But the fact remains, these are a few flagship companies which will bring out India's story
14:06 of infrastructure.
14:07 But yeah, I know, you know, this is an interesting story because it's also political.
14:14 It's also about policy.
14:15 It's also about the India growth story.
14:18 So it's all mixed into one.
14:19 But I'm just wondering from the market perspective, what is the market looking at?
14:23 Like the kind of sort of run up we've seen in the last few days, what are the factors
14:29 that the market is keeping in mind, number one?
14:32 And number two, when you have these kind of reports, we've been talking about the FT report
14:36 in the last couple of days.
14:38 Is it fair to say that the market has now started dismissing this as just the latest
14:43 in a series of these attacks?
14:45 They have lost their credibility.
14:47 You know, after the Supreme Court judgment for an Indian investor, it is very clear that
14:51 there is nothing cognizant in terms of a criminality.
14:54 Yes, there are.
14:55 We have heard in the paper that they are, some of the group companies or the investing
14:59 companies are filing with SEBI for past lapses on the issue of shareholding, which I think
15:04 one of the guests alluded to being the lapses of governance.
15:06 But the fact remains for an average investor, after the Supreme Court clarification, it
15:11 is very clear that these attacks will happen.
15:14 But our focus and investor focus is on fundamentals.
15:17 That's why I said to us, the focus is valuation, fundamentals.
15:20 And more important, I think what we got missed out, when the attack happened, Hindenburg
15:25 allegations came out.
15:26 There was no mechanism to address who had shorted the market, who profited from the
15:31 information which came in advance, and therefore the retail investor got caught short.
15:36 And I think that's a little productive mechanism, which do wonders for Indian investors, because,
15:40 you know, at the end of the day, there is a big cohort out there that you just heard
15:44 this all about people who made option money on $1 billion Indian options.
15:48 Now, these are some of the entities which are outside India's purview and affect our
15:53 retail investors and our valuation.
15:55 But we have now at least moved on to say, illegality wise, we don't have a problem.
16:00 We don't think we have a paytm kind of problem here.
16:03 And to that extent, there is comfort.
16:05 Yes, valuation is expensive.
16:07 But the fact remains that we are moved away now from allegations to performance.
16:12 And that's why a Bombay airport is more important.
16:14 When will the airport get spun off is more important than what the FT allegations are.
16:20 On that point, we'll get in Mr. Jait Malani as well.
16:23 Mr. Jait Malani has seen markets continue to repose their faith in Adani stocks.
16:28 And we've seen that yesterday, we're seeing it today.
16:32 And this all comes in at a time when there's also talk of its inclusion in the Sensex.
16:37 What do you think is the reason behind such reports?
16:40 Yeah, it is suspect for two reasons.
16:44 It is to hammer again, the stock market, right?
16:48 And Adani stocks in particular.
16:51 And it is also time for the elections.
16:52 I mean, it's obvious, right?
16:54 It's a very pathetic attempt to bring out a 2014 transaction.
16:58 What were you doing?
16:59 What was ORCP and all these organizations doing for such a long time?
17:05 I mean, this is stale as anything.
17:07 It's just a completely motivated attempt to try and bear hammer and try and make some
17:11 quick money and to try and get some electoral gain for their Indian allies like the Congress.
17:16 That is misconceived.
17:17 As I said, there's a 2014 transaction when Prime Minister Modi was not in power.
17:21 If there's anything, any wrongdoing, get the minister for coal and arrest him.
17:26 Sanjay Ashar, you know, the question now is that now that we've seen the market cap, and
17:33 I'm talking about it from the market cap perspective, because you will recall after the Hindenburg
17:38 report, the biggest story internationally, the biggest focus was that market value has
17:43 been eroded.
17:44 So that was a parameter that, you know, the media, newspapers, narrative, etc.
17:50 Everyone said that so much of market value has been eroded.
17:53 Now we've come to a stage where this has now come back to its previous levels.
17:57 You have reports out there with buy calls, just speaking from a market perspective, with
18:01 even higher targets, etc.
18:03 The question is that will these consistent attacks now lose their sting?
18:09 Are people still looking at this with any value or seriousness?
18:14 No, people will not look at these stings at all.
18:21 Investors and the market players do their due diligence.
18:24 They are intelligent and clever both.
18:26 So having said that, in spite of the FT report, the investors, instead of selling the stock,
18:34 there is a buy on them, the prices have gone up.
18:37 So that is what it is.
18:40 The proof of pudding lies in eating.
18:44 And now the fact that even after the FT report, the prices have gone up, the market capitalization
18:51 of all the Adani stock has gone up.
18:53 So my point is that these things, even if they happen in future, is not going to affect
18:58 the market.
18:59 Fortunately, the retail investors will not lose money because of these stings in case
19:06 there is somebody who is trying to sabotage, somebody is trying to hammer, etc.
19:12 So to answer your questions, these things may happen.
19:16 It's not going to affect Adani Group at all, the prices of Adani Group at all.
19:21 And considering their robust fundamentals, as you pointed out in the initial stages on
19:29 the network and all the parameters, financial parameters, I think the investments in infrastructure
19:38 projects such as ports, airports, cement, other infrastructure projects is so very robust
19:44 that irrespective of any stings which may happen, the market price will not get hammered.
19:55 Mr. Asher, just a point about, one is the part about the market price, etc. that we've
20:02 been talking about, but also about the investment plans of the company.
20:07 Now over the last year and a half, so many projects announced in states across the country,
20:15 no matter what the government is or what the political dispensation of that state government
20:19 is.
20:20 Do you think that has also underlined this entire point?
20:25 It does.
20:26 It does.
20:27 See, all these infrastructure projects or the projects which have been declared by the
20:32 Adani Group will surely get completed in my view.
20:36 Investors have also understood that, look, these stings, these reports may keep coming,
20:42 but they look into the assets, they look into the fundamentals, they look into the group's
20:49 plans and the past, wherein in spite of the reports, the group has continuously been doing
20:57 well.
20:58 They have never defaulted.
20:59 They have never restructured their loans in spite of the Heidenberg reports.
21:03 So, A, yes to answer your questions that in spite of the projects which have been declared,
21:10 I don't think there would be any hiccups in completing those projects.
21:15 Lenders also will not have any issues in spite of these sting reports and will not withdraw
21:23 any of the lines which have been provided to the Adani Group.
21:26 And keeping in mind the cash position of the Adani Group, I am sure those will get completed
21:34 without any issues.
21:36 Well, that's what the big brokerages also seem to believe.
21:39 Achha, I am going to quickly come to you on this.
21:42 Moody's early this year revised the outlook for the debt of four of Adani Group companies
21:48 from negative to stable.
21:50 And of course, what we have also seen is their balance sheet has improved significantly over
21:54 the last couple of years.
21:56 Do you feel like they will now be able to continue to raise debt at more competitive
22:02 levels, which would then help fuel growth, improve earnings and justify valuations?
22:07 Well, you know, the challenge for the group is now that in several sectors, they are competing
22:14 with equally heavyweight companies.
22:17 So it's not just about the political ramifications, it's not about whether there is something
22:21 to do with allegations.
22:22 The fact is that they are in the power sector, they compete with heavyweights like JSW, they
22:27 compete with Tata Power.
22:29 In the port sector, now the JSW is becoming a formidable competition.
22:33 So in airport, of course, they are localized, but they got competition in airport as well.
22:37 So to that extent, the fact is that their challenge is going to be how to keep the high
22:42 valuations of the company going.
22:44 And they are expensive.
22:45 All stocks are reasonably expensive in the group compared to all fundamentals.
22:49 So I'm not saying good or bad, but that's what they are.
22:51 But the challenge is for them is for them to keep the rating up, for them to keep the
22:55 debt engine flowing is the performance.
22:59 And they are now, for the first time in the last two years, into competing with big majors
23:03 in India, which is a big change.
23:05 Maybe five years back or four years back, they were ruling the roost.
23:08 But today the group is in most industries is going to compete with the data centers
23:12 coming up.
23:13 There are four other large companies going into the business as such.
23:16 So when you compete with the Tata, the Jindal, etc., you are not competing with formidable
23:21 people.
23:22 So to that extent, I think the challenge for them is operating performance.
23:26 And that will dictate whether their debt rating goes up, whether they can get money for their
23:30 new projects and so on and so forth.
23:33 And so the whole paradigm of earlier was low floating stock.
23:37 Therefore, valuation could be whatever it is compared to today's paradigm is the stock
23:41 is a little more broad based.
23:42 There are overseas investors in it.
23:44 Mutual funds are coming into it.
23:46 And the debt holders are now going to evaluate in a very different way compared to maybe
23:50 four to five years back.
23:51 And to that extent, it's both good in a manner.
23:54 If you perform well, you'll get very good rates.
23:57 And if you don't perform well, it will be difficult for them to raise money.
24:00 So now it's an operations challenge, performance challenge to dictate more than the extracurricular
24:05 issues which are affecting the group at this time.
24:07 You know, that's an interesting term, extracurricular issues.
24:10 I want to focus on those extracurricular issues just for a second.
24:13 Come back to Mohandas, on the point you were making.
24:16 I'm going to just pull up this graphic that our team has prepared.
24:20 And Mr. Pai, you alluded to this OCCRP Soros link about vested interests.
24:28 Now to people listening, they may come and question you that what are these conspiracy
24:33 theories you're on and on about?
24:36 Why are we talking about these conspiracy theories?
24:39 If I were to pose that question to you, do you see that clear link?
24:42 And where do you see that link coming from?
24:45 Look, if you read the allegations of Hindenburg, I don't see any original allegations based
24:52 upon any forensic ideas.
24:54 Most of them have been disclosed.
24:55 Most of them are in the public domain.
24:57 They all put it together in one list, you know, wrote some vague language.
25:01 And then they use certain vehicles like this OCCRP, that you know, that organization which
25:06 has no credibility.
25:08 They use that and that's funded by Soros.
25:11 And then they use lawyers here and everybody funded by Soros.
25:14 And Hindenburg is a vulture short seller.
25:17 Everybody knows that.
25:18 Nobody knows whether Soros made money.
25:20 And the fact that Soros spoke out shows the conspiracy.
25:23 If you're not spoken out, you could say that, okay, the chance event, blah, blah, blah,
25:27 but he spoke out, right?
25:28 He said Modi has to answer about Adani in Parliament.
25:32 Parliament.
25:33 And that is a very sacred thing for a country.
25:36 That means there are politicians who are being economically incentivized to raise all these
25:42 issues.
25:43 What is the link?
25:44 That's what we got to be careful of.
25:46 But you know, I want to make one point which will cut me off.
25:49 I hope you don't cut me off.
25:51 Look, Adani has become a very big group.
25:54 They have to improve governance.
25:55 They need to have independent directors who speak for the company.
25:58 When a crisis happens, independent directors should step up to the plate.
26:02 When the short selling happened, we didn't see any independent directors step up to the
26:06 plate.
26:07 It was the controlling shareholder and the CFO.
26:08 And the CFO made a very bad statement, attack on Adani is attack on India.
26:12 No company can think it's bigger than this country.
26:14 That's important.
26:15 So they have to improve corporate governance, get good independent directors who are really
26:19 independent.
26:20 Because they're very big today.
26:21 They can't play the same game.
26:22 Second, like Ashar said, there has to be greater liquidity in the marketplace.
26:26 When you are highly valued, the multiple is very high.
26:28 When you're thinly traded, any information will hit you badly.
26:32 It will be a one way street.
26:34 So I think this idea that a large controlling shareholder can have very low liquidity and
26:38 high prices that need to be tested in the market.
26:41 So there has to be greater broad basing of the shareholding for very large companies,
26:46 because that is a source of strength for them.
26:48 That means there are many, many other people that are extremely important.
26:51 And the third thing, which is very important is they must set standards in disclosure and
26:56 financial reporting.
26:57 Because I read their annual reports, I read their quarterly thing just for interest.
27:01 I don't have buying 300 shares I bought when the market came down in the Dardani port,
27:06 just as a curiosity.
27:07 I don't have any other holding.
27:08 But I find that the disclosure standards have to improve substantially.
27:13 Important message is companies that have become a big part of a market should up their governance
27:17 standard, disclosure standard.
27:19 They must have independent directors.
27:21 And they must broad base the shareholding to make sure that the volatility in the stock
27:26 due to high sensitivity to earnings is something that is countered by a very widespread holding
27:32 like Asha said.
27:33 We must have many more mutual funds invested.
27:36 We must have many more Indian investors invested.
27:38 And the fear that somebody is controlling, will decide one way, have related party transactions,
27:44 all that area becomes much more important.
27:47 You have to set standards.
27:48 You have to set standards if you are very big.
27:51 With greater responsibility, as you know, with greater prominence comes responsibility.
27:56 Point taken.
27:57 Point taken.
27:58 The focus also on what has transpired in the last 15 months and what markets in their collective
28:06 wisdom are seeing now.
28:07 Just as we wrap this up, because we've run out of time on this particular show.
28:12 As we wrap this up, just to note that you have seen this turnaround in Adani stocks
28:17 even before the election results.
28:20 So anyone making those links also now will have to go back and question that narrative.
28:26 But thank you so much to all of you for joining us on the show today.
28:30 We've completely run out of time.
28:31 But stay tuned.
28:32 A lot more coming up on the other side on NDTV Profit.
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