‘Kids want…,’ Adani CFO pot-shot at US investor Ackman seeking bailout for SVB

Adani Group’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Jugeshinder Robbie Singh took a jab at American billionaire investor Bill Ackman, who had been a fierce critic of Adani’s during the Hindenburg report controversy, as he was calling for a federal bailout of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).

“Kid wants "mamma" to come help," sharing Ackman’s tweet the Adani Group CFO wrote.

According to Ackman, the failure of SVB Financial could have a significant impact on the economy's long-term growth potential, as many venture capital-backed companies rely on the bank for loans and operating funds. If private capital is unable to provide a solution, a government-backed bailout with high levels of dilution may be required.

However, the American investor emphasised that in any SVB Financial bailout, the protection of the bank's depositors must take precedence over that of its equity holders or management. He contended that shareholders should not be protected from the risks they voluntarily accepted, and that poor risk management should not be rewarded.

Ackman continued that SVB Financial's failure and deposit losses posed a broader risk than just the bank itself. “The risk of failure and deposit losses here is that the next, least well-capitalized bank faces a run and fails and the dominoes continue to fall. That is why gov’t intervention should be considered,” he tweeted.

Adani top official's counter attack

The jibe by CFO Singh follows Bill Ackman's criticism of Adani Group over the Hindenburg report controversy. “I found the Hindenburg report highly credible and extremely well researched. Adani group's response speaks volumes. Caveat emptor,” he had tweeted.

The US billionaire investor went on to support short selling, he said, while his firm no longer short stocks and believe short selling is not a good way to make money, he has a great deal of respect for short sellers who conduct thorough research, such as Hindenburg Research.

This is also in light of the group's criticism that it is allegedly receiving favours from the Narendra Modi administration and opposition parties accusing Centre that it could give potentially give bail-out to Adani Enterprises Ltd.'s troubled follow-on public offer (FPO).