Race for India’s richest – The gap between Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani is narrowing

• India’s richest man Gautam Adani had added $18.8 billion to his wealth in the last two weeks.
• The bull run in stock markets has closed the gap between Adani and Mukesh Ambani’s wealth.
• Adani, now the 14th richest man in the world, is just $7 billion short of becoming India’s richest man.

Gautam Adani who lost his status as India’s richest man this year, is back in the race to claim it back. Thanks to the bull run in his stocks, he has added $18.8 billion in the past two weeks, and now is only $7 billion short of outpacing Mukesh Ambani, whose wealth is currently at $92.3 billion.

Adani’s personal wealth, which is linked to the value of his nine listed entities, had suffered a blow after the Hindenburg saga. Now, with most of those troubles on the back burner, his wealth is now inching closer to that of the Reliance chief.

Gautam Adani’s total wealth currently stands at $85.3 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The two Indian corporate heavyweights are right behind each other in the global billionaire list as well with Ambani holding the 13th rank and Adani being the 14th richest man in the world.

Two weeks: Five ranks

Adani had recently re-entered the Bloomberg top 20 billionaire’s list, and is steadily inching up. He was at the 19th position on November 29, and he became the 14th richest man in the world on December 13 — within a matter of two weeks.

Indian stock markets have been on a bull run, after many positive developments including – ruling national party BJP winning the mandate in three states, central bank hiking its FY24 GDP growth rate projections to 7% and much more. Adani group stocks were the top gainers during the most days as benchmark indices scaled new heights each day.

As expected, the gain added to his coffers too. Adani’s wealth increased from $66.7 billion to $85.3 billion between November 29 to December 13 — an increase of $18.8 billion. During the same period, Ambani’s wealth increased from $89.5 billion to $92.3 billion, an increase of $2.8 billion.

World’s top 20 richest

Rank	Name	Net worth	Last change
1	Elon Musk	$223 billion	-$3.2 billion
2	Bernard Arnault	$175 billion	$193 million
3	Jeff Bezos	$170 billion	-$1.46 billion
4	Bill Gates	$135 billion	$147 million
5	Larry Ellison	$130 billion	$1.12 billion
6	Steve Balmer	$128 billion	-$935 million
7	Larry Page	$121 billion	-$1.37 billion
8	Warren Buffet	$121 billion	$1.53 billion
9	Mark Zuckerberg	$118 billion	-$2.56 billion
10	Sergey Brin	$115 billion	-$1.28 billion
11	Carlos Slim	$97.3 billion	$83.6 million
12	Francoise Bettencourt Meyers	$95.5 billion	$413 million
13	Mukesh Ambani	$92.3 billion	$161 million
14	Gautam Adani	$85.3 billion	$124 million
15	Amancio Ortega	$82.5 billion	$562 million
16	Michael Dell	$73 billion	$2.44 billion
17	Jim Walton	$69.6 billion	$189 million
18	Rob Walton	$68.4 billion	$164 million
19	Alice Walton	$67.3 billion	$195 million
20	Julia Flesher Koch & family	$65.6 billion	$95.6 million

Source: Bloomberg Billionaire Index

The Hindenburg effect

Once the world’s third richest man and even the second richest man for a brief period, Adani’s wealth is nowhere close to its peak, before US research firm Hindenburg accused the group of stock manipulation and accounting fraud.

Adani is still down by $35.3 billion from the wealth he had held over the past year. He had lost over 60% of his wealth by the end of March after the report was released in late January.

Apart from a broad bull run, Adani Group stocks have been rallying due to other developments related to the group too. The Supreme Court had recently said that the Hindenburg and OCCRP reports could not be treated as “credible”.

This was followed by US-agency International Development Finance Corp (DFC) finding Hindenburg Research’s allegations of stock manipulation and accounting fraud by the group ‘irrelevant’.

SEE ALSO:

iQOO 12 review – flagship performance and cameras at an affordable price

Maruti Suzuki to Hyundai – car makers offer huge year-end discounts to push sales

OnePlus 12 debuts with bigger battery, up to 24GB RAM and more