Who is Viceroy Research? The short-seller targeting Vedanta's parent

Shares of Vedanta tanked up to 8 per cent in Wednesday's intra-day trade on the BSE amid heavy volumes, after Viceroy Research's report.

Vedanta share price: The New York-based investigative financial research Viceroy Research is in focus for its allegations and shorting of debt stack of Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal-owned Vedanta Resources. 

 

The short-seller alleged that the parent of India-listed Vedanta Ltd. "poses a severe, under-appreciated risk to creditors," and "resembles a Ponzi scheme". 

 

The 87-page report, which was released on Wednesday, said its investigation has uncovered material quantitative and qualitative discrepancies in the Vedanta group companies' operations. Bait and switch funding model, inflated asset values, capex fraud and governance failure are some of the discrepancies that the short-seller alleges. READ MORE

 

To cure its maladies, Vedanta Resources has proposed a demerger of the entities it has rolled up through its decades-long acquisition strategy, it added.   Vedanta Group, however, dismissed the "baseless" report, saying it's a malicious combination of selective misinformation. It alleged that the short seller was looking to "discredit" the group.

 

 

As per the data from stock exchanges, the promoter holding via various companies in Vedanta is 56.38 per cent as of March. It is to be noted that most of the shares held by the promoters are pledged to their creditors. 

 

Vedanta Resources is a financial zombie being kept alive by transfusions of cash from its subsidiary, it said. "The short thesis is not death by a thousand cuts: Any one of the multitude of risks we outline is sufficient to topple Vedanta’s already fragile, Ponzi-like structure." 

 

Who is Viceroy Research?

 

Viceroy Research LLC is an investigative financial research group registered in Delaware, USA, as per its website. Fraser John Perring, with Australian partners Aiden Lau and Gabriel Bernarde, formed the firm in 2016. 

 

"Our mission is to sift fact from fiction and encourage greater management accountability through transparency in reporting and disclosure by public companies and overall improve the quality of global capital markets," it said in the report. 

 

More recently, Tokyo-based Abalance was its target in 2023 for circumventing US duties. Earlier, the short seller went after the UK's Home REIT Plc, alleging about the financial health and governance of the UK social housing landlord.

 

It shorted Truecaller in 2022 for intentionally misdirecting valid criticism, and published a report on the technology giant Advanced Micro Devices Inc. in 2018, expanding on the financial impact of the CTS Labs vulnerabilities.  CHECK FULL LIST OF VICEROY RESEARCH TARGET COMPANIES

 

Viceroy Research also made headlines when it placed bet against companies like Elon Musk-owned Tesla. From Nasdaq-listed Athenex to Frankfurt Stock Exchange-listed Steinhoff, the short-seller has come up with reports on 29 companies, as per their website. The recent report on Vedanta parent's although listed on the London Stock Exchange, will have an impact in India given that its subsidiary is listed on the Indian stock exchange.  Shares of Vedanta tanked up to 8 per cent in Wednesday’s intra-day trade on the BSE amid heavy volumes, after the report. 

That said, reports suggest that Medical Properties Trust, an Alabama-based real estate investment trust, won a preliminary case in its defamation lawsuit against the short seller.  

It has also been fined by the South African FSCA for false and misleading statements about 'Capitec'.