Gautam Adani in striking distance of entering the top 20 richest club once again

• Gautam Adani added $5.35 billion to his wealth after group stocks surged on Monday.
• All the ten Adani group stocks surged on Tuesday morning too, with eight stocks locked in their respective upper circuits.
• The Adani group’s combined market capitalisation is up by ₹96,168 crore on Tuesday, after a surge of ₹1 lakh crore on Monday.

Gautam Adani is now within striking distance of entering the top 20 billionaires club in the world, once again.

After a massive run up in all the ten Adani group stocks on Monday, the group added ₹1 lakh crore to its market cap. As a result, Gautam Adani’s wealth grew $5.35 billion to his wealth, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

According to the index, his wealth stands at $59.8 billion, placing him at the 23rd position in the list of the world’s richest people. The 20th richest person, John Mars, the owner of confectionary giant Mars, has a wealth of $62.2 billion, which is just $2.4 billion more than Adani’s.

Adani gets most of his wealth from the stakes he holds in his group companies. The stocks have been rising after a panel appointed by the Supreme Court regarding public interest litigations filed around the Adani-Hindenburg row gave its report on Friday. The panel said that it could not find any failure on the regulator’s part in the Adani-Hindenburg case.

Locked in upper circuit

The group stocks have kept up with their pace of rise even on Tuesday. Eight out of the ten Adani group stocks were locked in their respective upper circuits on Tuesday morning, gaining between 5-15%.

Thanks to the sharp rise on Tuesday morning, the Adani group’s cumulative market capitalisation has risen by ₹96,168 crore, taking the total market capitalisation of the Adani group to ₹12.6 lakh crore.

All in all, of the ₹1.96 lakh crore rise in the Adani group’s market capitalisation on Monday and Tuesday, the group flagship Adani Enterprises alone accounts for ₹1.12 lakh crore.


Source: NSE, as on May 23, 2023 | Change in market cap as compared to May 22

The Adani-Hindenburg row has taken a toll on the market cap of the group – and consequently Gautam Adani’s position amongst the world’s richest fell from top 2 in late January to the 23rd position as of last week. Added to that, he also lost his position as India’s richest man — a tag that has gone back to Reliance Industries chairman, Mukesh Ambani.

However, even as Adani’s stocks continue to gain value — they might not bring in as much wealth into the Gautam Adani and family coffers anymore. To stem the tide during the peak of the row, the promoters had pared down their stakes across four group companies, selling to US-based investment firm GQG Partners for ₹15,446 crore.

Adani group companies however are picking up speed after a pause. While many companies had delayed or deferred plans, two Adani group entities now plan to raise as much as ₹21,000 crore.

Adani Enterprises plans to raise up to ₹12,500 crore and Adani Transmission up to ₹8,500 crore, via a stake sale through qualified institutional placement. The board of Adani Green will also meet on May 24 to consider a similar fundraising plan.

It is to be noted that Adani Enterprises had cancelled its ₹20,000 crore FPO in February after it was fully subscribed. “Today the market has been unprecedented, and our stock price has fluctuated over the course of the day. Given these extraordinary circumstances, the company’s board felt that going ahead with the issue will not be morally correct,” Adani had then said in a statement.

One Adani company’s stock is now above its pre-Hindenburg price

Adani Ports & SEZ, which has emerged as the most resilient group company in the entire Adani flock, is now back to its pre-Hindenburg price. Post today’s rally, Adani Ports’ shares are up 2% when compared to the closing price on January 24 when the Hindenburg Research report was released.

That being said, Adani Total Gas is still down by 81% in the same period.


Source: NSE, as on May 23

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