Muckraking financial firm Hindenburg Research is dissolving, founder says | Business and economy

Renowned short-seller Nate Anderson says his work was ‘intense and sometimes all-consuming’.

Hindenburg Research, the research and investment firm known for betting against companies including India’s Adani Group, will close, its founder has announced.

Nate Anderson, who founded the New York-based company in 2017, said Wednesday that while there was no single reason for the decision, running the company was “intense and at times all-consuming.”

“I often wake up from my dreams thinking of a new research thread to start in my dream, or an edit that clarifies a point I wasn’t aware was bothering me during the day. Or from the general pressure of it all,” Anderson said in a note on the company’s website.

Anderson said the plan was to dissolve the company after the “pipeline of ideas” he and his team had been working on was completed.

“I write this from a place of joy,” he said. “Building this has been a lifelong dream.”

Hindenburg Research, named after the German airship that exploded in 1937, made a name for itself by producing investigative reports on alleged corporate fraud, mismanagement and other malfeasance.

The firm profited from its research by borrowing shares of target companies in the expectation that their prices would fall, a practice known as short selling.

The company wiped billions of dollars off the market value of companies including Adani Group, one of India’s largest corporations, which it accused of committing decades of stock manipulation and accounting fraud.

In November, prosecutors in the United States indicted Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani for his alleged involvement in a bribery scheme linked to a major solar power plant.

Adani Group called the allegations “baseless” and said it would pursue “all possible legal remedies”.

In another high-profile case, Hindenburg Research accused electric vehicle startup Nikola in 2020 of misleading investors into thinking it had a working prototype of its pickup truck.

Nikola’s founder Trevor Milton was later convicted of defrauding investors and sentenced to four years in prison.

In his memo, Anderson said his company’s work was partially responsible for criminal or civil charges against nearly 100 people, including billionaires and oligarchs.

“We shook some empires that we felt needed to be shaken,” he said.

“Over time, people began to see what I had hoped we could show – that influence is possible, no matter who you are.”

Anderson, a University of Connecticut graduate who began his financial career at a financial analytics firm, said he plans to produce a series of materials and videos over the next six months to bring the company’s model to the public.

“Hopefully, after we fully share our process, in a few years I’ll get a spam message from someone reading this [maybe you]who embraces the same passion, learns the craft and finds the confidence to shed some light on a subject that needs it, despite the obstacles in your way,” he said.

“It would make my day, even if I’m trying to learn music or plant a garden or whatever I’m going to do next.”