As per the new numbers released on Friday by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Gautam Adani has once again emerged as the richest person in Asia.
After Hindenburg Research accused the Adani Group of “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud” over decades, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani took the top rank in Asia, while Adani Group founder and chairman Gautam now holds the position.
The study caused the Adani Group firms’ market value to plummet by billions and undermined investor confidence.
Gautam’s triumph occurred only a few days after the Indian Supreme Court declared that no more investigations were required beyond the current examination by market regulator the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The conglomerate is presently under investigation by SEBI due to claims made by Hindenburg Research in January.
The Adani Group has ten publicly traded firms, the shares of which have been gradually rising since the Hindenburg fiasco, among them Adani Port, which had a 2.8% increase on Friday afternoon in Asia.
As of Friday, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index listed Adani as the 12th richest person in the world with a net worth of $97.6 billion and Ambani in 13th place with a net value of $97 billion.
Ambani’s wealth has increased by $665 million year to date, while Adani’s has increased by $13.3 billion since the start of the year.
Based on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the founder of the massive Adani Group has reclaimed his old rank as Asia’s richest man after a turbulent year. With a net worth of $97.6 billion, he is currently ranked 12th among the world’s wealthiest people.
Over the past two days, the self-made industrialist and college dropout has added over $13 billion to his net worth, making him the continent’s largest billionaire, surpassing Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, who is currently worth $97 billion.
Almost a year after US short-seller Hindenburg Research accused Adani’s ports-to-power complex of a “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme,” the company has seen its biggest wealth increase globally, according to the index.
Adani’s fortune, which in September 2022 was worth more than Jeff Bezos’s, underwent a dramatic decline as a result of the scrutiny that followed those claims; at one time, the tycoon lost almost $80 billion after Hindenburg released the report in January 2023.
While his net worth increased slightly in the months that followed, it was still more than 40% below its September 2022 level by the end of last year, according to the Bloomberg index.
Short-sellers profit by wagering that a company’s stock will decline. In its inquiry, which Hindenburg said took two years to compile, the American firm had questioned the “sky-high valuations” of Adani companies and claimed their “substantial debt” put the entire group “on a precarious financial footing.”
In a 400-page rebuttal, the Adani Group described the Hindenburg analysis as “nothing but a lie.” However, it was not enough to stop the stock market crash that occurred early in the previous year, which severely damaged the conglomerate’s market value and Adani’s personal wealth. The nation’s market regulator also opened an investigation into the group.
However, Gautam stocks have increased this week after the regulator was told by India’s highest court to expedite the conclusion of its investigation and declared that no additional inquiries into the business were necessary.
Equity in Adani Enterprises, his main company, had increased by about 7% this week. Gautam greeted the decision with the words “truth has prevailed” and expressed confidence that his “humble contribution to India’s growth story will continue.”
Considered a close ally of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gautam has occasionally been likened to tycoons like John D. Rockefeller and Cornelius Vanderbilt, two of the country’s most successful monopoly builders from the 1800s, during the Gilded Age in America.
Before establishing a commodity trading company in 1988 that eventually became Adani Enterprises, he started his career in diamond trading. Today, he has companies in important industries like ports, power, media, and sustainable energy.
Prior to the Hindenburg tragedy, markets had consistently supported Adani, placing their money on him to expand his company into areas that Modi has designated as priority areas for growth.