Having lost $36 billion of his wealth so far in January following a rout in company share prices in the aftermath of the Hindenburg report, Gautam Adani has now lost his position in the elite club of the world’s 10 richest billionaires.
The 60-year-old Ahmedabad-based Indian tycoon is now in the 11th slot in the rich list with a wealth of $84.4 billion, shows Bloomberg Billionaires Index. In the list of world’s top 500 richest men and women, Adani has seen the biggest wipeout so far in the calendar year 2023.
Incidentally, Adani had been the biggest wealth gainer in 2022 with an annual gain of around $40 billion. Now he seems to have lost all the gains he saw in his personal wealth last year.
However, the college dropout still remains the richest Indian as Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani is just behind him at No.12.
Ever since New-York based short-seller Hindenburg Research released a 32,000-worded report last week alleging various frauds, malpractices and stock manipulation, Adani has been losing billions of dollars every trading day.
Bloomberg data shows that Adani has lost $34 billion in the last three trading sessions as his group companies have wiped off over one-fourth of its market capitalisation.
Riding on the gravity-defying rally in prices of stocks in his vast empire spread across ports, FMCG, mining and energy, Adani had last year occupied the No.2 slot in the rich list for a brief period with only Elon Musk being richer than him. As things stand now, he is behind ten other billionaires like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Mukesh Ambani is tagging him behind at the No.12 slot in the rich list with a wealth of $84.4 billion.
The loss in personal wealth, which is directly dependent on the prices of Adani stocks, comes after investors dumped Adani counters following the Hindenburg report.
In a 413-page strong rebuttal to the 88 questions asked by the New York-based short-seller, Adani Group has raised questions on the motivation behind the report and said it is a case of unethical short selling by a foreign entity by publishing a report to manipulate and depress the price of stock, and create a false market.
This is not merely an unwarranted attack on any specific company but a calculated attack on India, the independence, integrity and quality of Indian institutions, and the growth story and ambition of India, Adani said.
