On July 12, 2022, market analyst Muddy Waters Research published a report entitled “HASI: ‘ESG’ is for Exaggerating, Scamming, and Grifting” which alleged several issues with Hannon Armstrong’s financial statements, summarizing the alleged issues as “HASI misleadingly inflates GAAP earnings three ways: 1) Through a loophole in the arcana of accounting for renewables subsidies, HASI books non-cash unrealizable income relating to third parties’ tax credits that will be reversed; 2) HASI produces non-cash income by manipulating the discount rate it applies to residual assets to implausibly low levels, thereby inflating its gains on securitizations; and, 3) HASI books interest income from non-cash ‘Paid in Kind’ (‘PIK’) interest payments, which are essentially IOUs from stressed borrowers.”
On this news, Hannon Armstrong’s stock price fell $6.92 per share, or 19%, to close at $29.41 per share on July 12, 2022, on unusually heavy trading volume, damaging investors.
