Indian tycoon Gautam Adani’s logistics unit has announced it will buy back up to $650mn in bonds, as his conglomerate fights to prove it has ample cash on hand after a short seller attack three months ago.

New York-based Hindenburg Research alleged in a January report that the ports-to-power conglomerate was manipulating its stock price and engaged in fraudulent accounting. The attack wiped more than $100bn off the group’s market value and caused credit agencies to downgrade their outlook on some Adani bonds.

Although the Adani group strenuously denied Hindenburg’s allegations, it pledged to slim its ballooning debt pile and slow its rapid expansion. Adani paid back $2.65bn of share-backed loans by mid-March, but this is its first bond buyback since the Hindenburg report.