Gautam Adani drops out of top 10 richest people list: Just $2.2 bn ahead of Mukesh Ambani

• Gautam Adani is now the eleventh richest man with a networth of $84.4 billion.
• Last week, Adani was the fourth richest man in the world with a wealth of $119 billion.
• Bernard Arnault, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are now the top three richest men in the world.

Gautam Adani is now the 11th richest person in the world, as his ranking dropped seven positions in the last one week.

Adani’s wealth now stands at $84.4 billion behind former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Mexican businessman Carlos Slim.

This sharp plunge in Adani’s net worth is the result of a report by US-based research firm Hindenburg released on January 24 on the Adani group.

The report titled ‘How the world's 3rd richest man is pulling the largest con in corporate history’ alleged "brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme" at the Adani Group.

Gautam Adani, who is the chairman of the Adani group, saw his wealth tumble down by $34.6 billion since the report was published, according to data from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The research firm also said that it’s taking short positions in the group’s US-traded bonds and non-Indian-traded derivative instruments. This triggered a massive stock correction where the stocks of all nine Adani Group companies plunged, wiping off ₹5.57 lakh crore in market value since the report was released.

Adani’s changing rankings
Just last week, Adani stood fourth on the world’s billionaire list with a wealth of $119 billion.

LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault, Tesla owner Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos hold the top three positions on the world’s billionaire list.

Adani owes his wealth to the multinational conglomerate’s varied operations across ports, energy, logistics, media, green energy, aerospace and other sectors.

In 2022, Adani’s ranking in the top 10 list has been changing. At one point he held the second richest person in the world rank, and even the third.

As recession fears gripped the world and the US, many tech stocks lost value affecting the personal wealth of tech billionaires who rank very high on the top 10 billionaires list – resulting in a dynamic state of the wealth of the world's wealthiest.

In early January 2023, however Adani settled as the world’s fourth richest person – before his fortunes were changed by the Hindenburg report.

Adani is currently ahead of Reliance Industries’ chairman Mukesh Ambani by just $2.2 billion. Ambani’s wealth stands at $82.2 billion and ranks 12 in the world’s richest men list. Ambani lost his richest man of India status to Adani, in 2022.

Top 12 richest people of the world
Source: Bloomberg

Adani stocks continue to be in the red
Six out of the nine Adani Group stocks were in the red on Tuesday, with three of them hitting their respective lower circuits. The only gainers were Adani Enterprises, Ambuja Cements, and ACC.

In response to the allegations, Adani Group on January 29 gave a lengthy response to the allegations saying that it is in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. “We are committed to the highest levels of governance to protect the interests of all our stakeholders," a statement said.

The report also impacted the company’s plans to raise funds by issuing new shares of Adani Enterprises via a follow-on public offer (FPO). The FPO is the largest in India Inc’s history, and the company has raised ₹5,985 crore from anchor investors.

However, the FPO has been subscribed just 20% so far as at 11:42 am on the last day of the subscription process. On the second day, it was subscribed by just 2%.

The FPO received a shot in the arm with the Abu Dhabi-based International Holding Company committing an investment of $400 million (approx. ₹3,244 crore).

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