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Adani’s Market Losses $100 Billion Following The Financial Crisis

Adani's Market Losses $100 Billion Following The Financial Crisis

(CTN NEWS) – SINGAPORE – A day after the Indian group’s main firm abandoned its $2.5 billion public offering, Adani’s market losses reached over $100 billion on Thursday, raising concerns about a potential systemic impact.

The removal of Adani Enterprises from popular sustainability indices by S&P Dow Jones Indices, which will take effect on February 7, would present another difficulty for Adani.

And make the stock less desirable to sustainability-focused funds.

Additionally, the National Stock Exchange of India announced that it had added more shares of Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, and Ambuja Cements to its monitoring list.

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani speaks during an interview with Reuters at his office in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad April 2, 2014. Picture was taken April 2, 2014. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo

Nevertheless, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday that Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani is in discussions with lenders to prepay and release pledged shares as he strives to restore trust in the financial health of his conglomerate.

The founder of Adani Enterprises, the school dropout-turned-billionaire whose fortunes rose quickly in recent years.

But have plunged in just a week after a critical research report by U.S.-based short-seller Hindenburg Research, has suffered a dramatic setback with the shocking withdrawal of the company’s share sale.

Aborting the share sale shocked the markets, the political system, and the corporate world.

The price of Adani stock fell, opposition politicians demanded a further investigation, and India’s central bank acted quickly to assess banks’ exposure to the business.

READ MORE: Adani, Asia’s Richest Man, Targeted In $68 Billion Stock Market Crash

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In the meantime, the wealth division of Citigroup (C.N) stopped lending customers margin loans secured by Adani Group securities.

As he pursues a global expansion spanning from ports to the power sector, Adani has recently formed partnerships with foreign goliaths like France’s TotalEnergies and attracted investors like Abu Dhabi’s International Holding Company.

The crisis represents a dramatic turn of fortune for Adani.

In a shocking move late on Wednesday, Adani canceled the share sale despite it being completely subscribed the day before as a stock crash caused by Hindenburg’s critiques worsened.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, the senior market analyst at Swissquote Bank, claimed that Adani “may have begun a confidence crisis in Indian shares, which might have broader market ramifications.”

On Thursday, shares of Adani Enterprises fell 27%, closing at their lowest price since March 2022.

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Adani Total Gas, Adani Green Energy, and Adani Transmissionall suffered further losses of 10% each, while Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone lost close to 7%.

Group companies have lost nearly half of their total market value since Hindenburg’s report on January 24. The market capitalization of Adani Enterprises, which is said to as an incubator for Adani’s businesses, has decreased by $26 billion.

Adani’s net worth nearly halved to $64.6 billion in a week, making him no longer the richest person in Asia. Adani has dropped to 16th on Forbes’ list of the world’s richest persons.

The 60-year-old was ranked third after billionaires Bernard Arnault and Elon Musk.

The richest man in Asia is now his adversary Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries.

Reuters Graphics

Reuters Graphics

BROADER QUESTIONS

Concerns have been expressed regarding the possibility of a wider impact on India’s financial system as a result of Adani’s falling stock and bond prices.

On Thursday, government and banking sources told Reuters that India’s central bank has requested information from regional banks regarding their exposure to the Adani Group.

In the fiscal year ending in March 2022, according to CLSA, Indian banks were exposed to nearly 40% of the $24.5 billion in debt held by the Adani Group.

On Thursday, the dollar bonds issued by the Adani Group’s businesses continued to lose value, with notes from Adani Green Energy falling to a record low.

/ AP

On Thursday, according to sources cited by Reuters, Adani Group entities made the monthly coupon payments on outstanding U.S. dollar-denominated debts.

Although there will be short-covering rebounds, we anticipate more fundamental downside risks given that more private banks (are) likely to cut or lower margins, according to Monica Hsiao.

Chief investment officer of Hong Kong-based credit fund Triada Capital. “We see the market is losing confidence in measuring where the bottom can be,” she added.

Opposition members in New Delhi formally requested that the short-report sellers be discussed in parliament.

While the day’s session of parliament was adjourned, the Congress Party demanded the formation of a Joint Parliamentary Committee or a Supreme Court-monitored investigation.

FILE- Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani attends the 'Invest Karnataka 2016 - Global Investors Meet' in Bangalore, India, Feb. 3, 2016. Asia’s richest man, Gautam Adani, saw his companies shed tens of billions of dollars in market value after short-selling firm Hindenburg Research accused him of “pulling the largest con in corporate history,” triggering a massive sell-off of Adani stocks. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi, File)

HINDENBURG vs. ADANI

According to Dealogic data, Adani made acquisitions worth $13.8 billion in 2022, a record-breaking amount and more than double the previous year.

Adani needed the money from the canceled fundraising since it had previously stated that it would require $1.33 billion to pay for green hydrogen projects and airport infrastructure.

And greenfield motorways, as well as $508 million to pay off debt at some units.

The Adani Group was accused of stock manipulation and using offshore tax havens improperly in Hindenburg’s research. High debt and the values of seven listed Adani companies were other issues that were brought up.

/ AP

The Adani Group has refuted the allegations, claiming that there is “no basis” for them and that they are the result of a misunderstanding of Indian law. It said that it has always disclosed information required by regulations.

Even though the stock’s market price was less than the issue’s offer price on Tuesday, Adani was nevertheless able to collect subscribers for the share sale.

For the anchor component of the issuance, Maybank Securities and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority submitted bids; Adani will now repay these investments.

Due to the share price decline, the group’s founder said late on Wednesday that he was canceling the sale. He added that his board decided that continuing the transaction “would not be morally proper.”

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

Google

Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.

According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.

Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.

google

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.

Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.

Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.

To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.

Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.

On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.

In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.

Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

google

Pixa Bay

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.

TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.

When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.

And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.

Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.

A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.

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Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.

But today, it feels more like reality.

Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.

Could we remember Google in the same way that we remember Yahoo or Ask Jeeves in decades? These next few years could be significant.

SOURCE | CNN

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2024 | Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

trump

Washington — Trump Media,  The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear an appeal from social media platform X about a search warrant acquired by prosecutors in the election meddling case against former President Donald Trump.

The justices did not explain their rationale, and there were no recorded dissents.

The firm, which was known as Twitter before being purchased by billionaire Elon Musk, claims a nondisclosure order that prevented it from informing Trump about the warrant obtained by special counsel Jack Smith’s team violated its First Amendment rights.

The business also claims Trump should have had an opportunity to exercise executive privilege. If not reined in, the government may employ similar tactics to intercept additional privileged communications, their lawyers contended.

trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

Two neutral electronic privacy groups also joined in, urging the high court to hear the case on First Amendment grounds.

Prosecutors, however, claim that the corporation never shown that Trump utilized the account for official purposes, therefore executive privilege is not a problem. A lower court also determined that informing Trump could have compromised the current probe.

trump

Trump utilized his Twitter account in the weeks preceding up to his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to spread false assertions about the election, which prosecutors claim were intended to create doubt in the democratic process.

The indictment describes how Trump used his Twitter account to encourage his followers to travel to Washington on Jan. 6, pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification, and falsely claiming that the Capitol crowd, which battered police officers and destroyed glass, was peaceful.

musk trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

That case is now moving forward following the Supreme Court’s verdict in July, which granted Trump full immunity from criminal prosecution as a former president.

The warrant arrived at Twitter amid quick changes implemented by Musk, who bought the company in 2022 and has since cut off most of its workforce, including those dedicated to combating disinformation and hate speech.

He also welcomed back a vast list of previously banned users, including Trump, and endorsed him for the 2024 presidential election.

SOURCE | AP

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The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

Supreme Court

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.

The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.

Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.

This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.

In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.

The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.

This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.

The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.

In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.

According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.

Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.

The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.

For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.

Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.

As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.

As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.

The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.

SOURCE: AP

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