Renowned short-seller Nate Anderson says his work has been ‘intense, and at times, all-encompassing’.
Hindenburg Research, the muckraking research and investment firm known for betting against companies including India’s Adani Group, will shut down, its founder has announced.
Nate Anderson, who founded the New York City-based firm in 2017, said on Wednesday that while there was no single reason for the decision, running the company had been “intense, and at times, all-encompassing”.
“I often wake up from my dreams because I’ve thought of a new investigative thread to pull on in my sleep, or an edit that clarifies a point I didn’t realise I was troubled by during the day. Or from the general pressure of it all,” Anderson said in a note on the firm’s website.
Anderson said the plan had been to disband the firm after finishing the “pipeline of ideas” he and his team had been working on.
“I write this from a place of joy,” he said. “Building this has been a life’s dream.”
Hindenburg Research, named after the German airship that exploded in 1937, made a name for itself producing investigative reports alleging corporate fraud, mismanagement and other malfeasance.
The firm profited from its research by borrowing shares of targeted companies in the expectation that their prices would drop, 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 perpetrating decades of stock manipulation and accounting fraud.
In November, prosecutors in the United States indicted Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani over his alleged involvement in a bribery scheme linked to a large solar power plant.
Adani Group called the allegations “baseless” and said it would seek “all possible legal recourse”.
In another high-profile case, Hindenburg Research in 2020 accused electric vehicle startup Nikola of misleading investors into thinking it had a working prototype of its pick-up truck.
Nikola founder Trevor Milton was later convicted of defrauding investors and sentenced to four years in prison.
In his note, Anderson said his firm’s work had been responsible in part for criminal or civil charges against nearly 100 people, including billionaires and oligarchs.
“We shook some empires that we felt needed shaking,” he said.
“Over time, people began to see what I hoped we could show – that having an impact is possible, no matter who you are.”
Anderson, a University of Connecticut graduate who began his finance career at a financial analytics company, said he planned to produce a series of materials and videos over the next six months to make the firm’s model available to the public.
“My hope is that after we fully share our process, in a couple years I will get an unsolicited message from someone who reads 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.
“That would make my day, even if I’m off trying to learn music or planting a garden or whatever I end up doing next.”