Shares of Adani Group’s listed firms were hit by a sell-off Tuesday after Indian media reports raised questions about the conglomerate’s debt repayment claims, resuming a fall in the group’s stock prices that began in January following short-seller Hindenburg Group scathing report accusing the group of fraud and stock manipulation.
Chairperson of Indian conglomerate Adani Group, Gautam Adani, speaks at the World Congress of Accountants in Mumbai.
AFP via Getty Images
Forbes Valuation
According to our estimates, the current net worth of Gautam Adani, the group’s founder and chairman, stands at $46.1 billion—making him the 24th richest person in the world. The billionaire’s fortune has fallen by $4.2 billion in the past 24 hours.
The billionaire, formerly Asia’s richest and the world’s third richest person, has seen his fortune plummet by nearly two-thirds in the past two months, down from $126.4 billion.
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Key Background
The latest selloff of Adani’s listed shares comes after a period of relative calm and even a slight recovery in the past few weeks. The Adani Group has been embroiled in controversy since late January, when U.S.-based activist investor Hindenburg Research published a report accusing the conglomerate of engaging in “brazen stock manipulation and [an] accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades.”
Alongside the report, Hindenburg also disclosed it had taken a short position against Adani’s listed shares. The company vehemently denied Hindenburg’s allegations and even attempted to tap into nationalistic fervor by painting it as an attack on India and its institutions.
This article was first published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
