Viceroy Research

Viceroy Research LLC is an international investigative financial research group registered in Delaware, United States. It was founded by a British short-seller Fraser John Perring together with Australian partners Aiden Lau and Gabriel Bernarde in 2016. Perring and Viceroy have stirred considerable media interested because of their reports on firms like Wirecard which they accused of nonexisting accounts. Of late, Viceroy has been known to bet against companies like Tesla, or Grenke.[1][2][3][4]

In 2021, the South African Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has fined Viceroy R50 million for damaging remarks that the short-selling firm made about South Africa's Capitec Bank.[5]

In October 2021, it issued a damning report against Adler Real Estate for inflated valuations and undisclosed related party deals. [6] KPMG probed the allegations and cleared the company of systemic fraud, but was unable to refute all of the claims. In May 2022, KPMG quit its contract. Adler eventually was unable to repay its debt. In April 2023, it won approval in court, against the opposition of some bondholders, to suspend coupon payments and extend maturities of bonds due in 2024. [7] [8]

On 16 March 2023, a question was raised in the UK's House of Commons by Liam Byrne MP about Viceroy Research involvement in a short-selling attack on Babcock International (involved with build and maintenance of UK's nuclear submarines) and Fraser John Perring's links and frequent trips to Moscow:

"Can we have a debate in Government time on the activities of short-selling attack group Viceroy Research and its leader Fraser Perring? I am told that it is working hand in glove with Boatman Capital, which launched the short-selling attack on Babcock International while it was overhauling our nuclear submarines. Mr Perring is a not infrequent visitor to Moscow, and is now targeting Home REIT, which provides homelessness services, including to homeless veterans. We must ensure that short-selling groups are not another weapon in Putin’s arsenal. Where there are links between short-selling attack groups and the Kremlin, we need to know." [9]

References
  1. "Research". Viceroy Research. 2021-01-22. Retrieved 2022-06-08.
  2. "Short Seller Who Bet Against Wirecard Wagers Tesla Is Overpriced". Bloomberg. 2022-01-05. Retrieved 2022-06-08. Fraser Perring says EV maker is overvalued by factor of 10; Size of short bet against Tesla is about 5% of his portfolio
  3. "Research Report 2018 - INVESTMENT RESEARCH IN THE ERA OF FAKE NEWS - A study of activist short selling and Viceroy Research" (PDF). intellidex.co.za. 2018.
  4. "Fraser Perring: Die belgische Holding Sofina ist sein nächstes Ziel". capital.de (in German). 2022-05-25. Retrieved 2022-06-08.
  5. Buthelezi, Londiwe (2021-09-08). "Regulator fines Viceroy R50m for falsely accusing Capitec of being a 'loan shark'". Fin24. Retrieved 2022-06-08.
  6. "Adler Group – Bond Villains". 2021-10-06.
  7. "Adler Says It Can Restructure Debt Despite Investor Resistance". 2022-12-09.
  8. "Adler Wins Restructuring Approval Despite Creditor Opposition". 2023-04-12.
  9. "Hansard - Oral Answers to Questions".


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