- Report alleges that Nasdaq listed company is an ‘exceptionally obvious scam’
- Tingo had a market capitalisation of more than $400mn before the report was released.
- Tingo’s business rests on claims that it has distributed 9mn branded mobile devices to Nigerian farmers through which they can access cheap credit and microloans — as well as weather forecasts, prices of farm input and produce — on the company’s online marketplace, Nwassa.
- Big Four auditor Deloitte is also in the short seller’s crosshairs after its Israeli arm gave Tingo a clean, unqualified audit, leading Hindenburg to suggest they had “missed or rushed through procedures that would have uncovered important findings”.
Shares in Tingo Group more than halved on Tuesday after short seller Hindenburg Research said it had placed a bet against the Nasdaq-listed fintech group whose chief executive made a bid for Sheffield United football club.
Hindenburg alleged in a report released on Tuesday that the company, which operates a mobile technology and payments business focused on farming and food-processing operations in Nigeria, was an “exceptionally obvious scam”.
The New York-based short seller is run by Nathan Anderson and in January alleged fraud and stock price manipulation at India’s Adani group, triggering a sell-off in the group’s listed entities. Last month it unveiled a position against Icahn Enterprises, the publicly listed fund run by activist Carl Icahn.
On Tuesday, Hindenburg claimed that Tingo had lied about some of its partnerships and products, did not hold the mobile licence it required to operate parts of its business and said it found no evidence that the group owned a food-processing facility nor that it had started to build one.
No comments:
Post a Comment