Indian billionaire Gautam Adani left the list of the 5 richest people in the world with the decline in the shares of the “Adani” group companies, and he lost more than a fifth of his wealth in just 6 hours, after allegations of fraud in various fields.
Allegations of stock manipulation and accounting fraud from New York-based Hindenburg Research against the Adani Group continue to pile pressure on the Indian conglomerate and its 60-year-old founder, Gautam Adani, who was at one time second only to Elon Musk on the list of the richest. the scientist.
As a result of these allegations, Adani dropped out of the list of the 5 richest people in the world after his group lost more than $ 50 billion of its market value in just over 6 hours of trading in Mumbai, Friday. That cost Gautam Adani more than $20 billion, or about a fifth of his fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
And while the "Hindenburg" report claimed that Adani, India's richest man and close associate of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is nothing but a giant hoax, Adani responded by saying that the accusations were unfounded, and considered it an attack on India itself.
Who is Gautam Adani?
Indian billionaire Gautam Adani was born into a small family of textile merchants in 1962 in the western industrial state of Gujarat. He left university and started his career sorting diamonds for a company in the financial center of Mumbai. He later imported materials used in manufactured goods and by the mid-1990s was running the port of Mundra, which he now owns.
Adani is the Chairman and Founder of the Adani Group, an Ahmedabad-based multinational conglomerate involved in the development and operation of ports in India. Adani is also the President of the Adani Foundation, which is primarily led by his wife, Preeti Adani.
The businessman is seen as closer than any other Indian billionaire to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who also hails from Gujarat. Adani's strategy also runs parallel to Modi's efforts to develop India's $3.2 trillion economy, according to a report published by Bloomberg .
What is his net worth?
In September 2022, Gautam Adani became the third richest person in the world only briefly, when his net worth rose to $150.6 billion in the real-time Forbes billionaires rankings . At the time, Adani outperformed Amazon founder and chairman Jeff Bezos, whose fortune fell by about $10 billion to $150.2 billion, after shares of the e-commerce giant fell by 7% in New York on September 13, 2022.
And while his net worth declined in the days following the publication of the "Hindenburg" report on January 24, he was still one of the richest men in the world according to the Forbes Billionaires Index, which placed Adani 15th in the world, with an estimated net worth of $75.1. Billion dollar.
variety of business
Today, the Adani Group includes 6 major companies with interests ranging from energy to transportation and infrastructure development. It is the largest port operator in India and operates some of the largest airports in the country.
While much of Adani's wealth came from mining, shipping, and power from coal, India doubled down on fossil fuels to lift millions out of poverty. Now, the Adani Group may be a decisive force in India's green future, having previously pledged to invest tens of billions of dollars to develop renewable energy in the country.
Regarding the strength of his political relations with Modi, Bloomberg indicated that Adani began in 2021 to build a major port facility in Sri Lanka, where officials from both countries said at the time that the plan was encouraged by the Modi government, which wants to curb Chinese influence in the island country.
What did the Hindenburg claim?
Founded by short seller Nathan Anderson, the Hindenburg has issued a 100-page report accusing the Indian group of using a network of companies in tax havens to inflate revenues and share prices, even as debt piles up. Among the allegations:
- Identified 38 shell entities in Mauritius controlled by Adani's brother, Vinod Adani, or close associates as well as entities controlled by him in other tax havens, which appear to have been used to manipulate profits.
The Adani Group has previously been the focus of four major government investigations related to allegations of fraud.
- It appears that two major companies within the Adani Group are being audited by a small accounting firm, which has no current website, has only four partners and only 11 employees. Noting that it is "hardly capable of carrying out complex audit work."
Hindenburg said it is shorting Adani Group shares via US-traded bonds and derivatives not traded in India, and that its report "relates solely to the valuation of securities traded outside India," adding that it "welcomes" legal action in the United States.
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