Indus Valley Times

NEW DELHI, JAN. 28: Asia’s and India’s richest billionaire- Gautam Adani’s fortune fell sharply on Friday and his ranking in the global rich list came down to the seventh spot on Friday.

According to the Forbes Real Times Billionaire Index, Adani’s wealth tumbled by over $22.5 billion to $96.8 billion during the day. Adani is now placed below Microsoft founder Bill Gates whose fortune was estimated at $104.1 billion on the rich list.

Adani had scaled to 2nd position in the rich list last year when Group Stock prices witnessed a big rally. He remained at 3rd position for a long time and was recently replaced by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ($ 122 billion). Bernard Arnault (Louis Vitton) and family dominate the rich list with a fortune of $216.1 billion followed by Elon Musk (Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter) whose net worth was last pegged at $170.1 billion.

Adani’s business rival and RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani was at 11th spot in the rich list with a fortune of $83.6 billion.Gautam Adani’s fall in the wealth list comes after the share prices of Adani Group companies fell up to 20% on Friday as the spat between the Adani Group and US-based activist investor firm Hindenburg Research intensified on Thursday. Further, Adani’s point-by-point rebuttal of Hindenburg’s questions seems to have not provided much relief to Group’s listed stocks. Hinderburg Research in a report on January 24 accused Adani of stock market manipulation, called the share prices of its seven listed companies ‘overvalued’, and questioned the role of close family members — two among many serious allegations.

Adani has called these allegations ‘malicious’ and said that it is examining legal action against Hindenburg.

Share prices of Adani Total Gas on Friday nosedived 20% to hit a low of Rs 2,934 on the BSE while Adani Green fell 19% to hit a low of Rs 1,488. Shares of the group’s flagship Adani Enterprises were down over 8% while those of Adani Ports(APSEZ) shed 10% to hit a new 52-week low; Adani Transmission fell over 17% while Adani Power and Adani Wilmar hit a lower circuit of 5%. Other Adani stocks too witnessed heavy selling pressure on Friday.

The Group’s market cap had taken a beating of about Rs 2 lakh crore right at the start of Friday’s trading sessions. On Wednesday, the Group’s market cap had tumbled by about Rs 97,000 crore.

-TNIE