Deloitte flags Adani Port transactions citing lack of review

The auditor for Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd. stated that it can only render a qualified opinion on the company's financial statements due to insufficient disclosures regarding some transactions, bringing back into the public eye the criticisms of Gautam Adani's empire voiced by short seller Hindenburg Research. On Tuesday, Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP expressed concern regarding three transactions the port unit had with unrelated parties, according to the firm. However, the auditor claimed that because the firm declined to obtain an impartial external assessment that would have helped establish the parties' lack of relationships, it was unable to confirm that they were unrelated. The US short seller report, which contains charges that have reduced the group's market value by more than $100 billion, has been cited by a top auditor for the first time in a qualified opinion on a portion of the empire's books. The action would rekindle worries that the port-to-power conglomerate's financial operations continue to be obscured by transparency gaps and runs the risk of impeding its efforts to refute the charges of significant corporate wrongdoing made by Hindenburg.