Adani Lost Rs 3,000 Crore A Week In 2023

The combined market-cap of all listed Adani group firms has plunged nearly Rs 7.11 trillion since January 24 when the Hindenburg report was made public.

Stung by the Hindenburg Research report in January 2023 that alleged the Adani group had engaged in brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme, improper use of offshore tax havens, and flagged concerns about the group's high debt, Gautam Adani lost $28 billion in wealth, or Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) a week in 2022-2023, suggests M3M Hurun Global Rich List report.

As a result, Gautam Adani and family lost the second richest Asian title to Zhong Shanshan of YST, a Russia-based seller of the alloy and steel wheels.

It estimates the wealth of Gautam Adani and family at $53 billion now.

From ports and airports in India to abroad; power, gas, infrastructure, media, cement, green energy to even the cooking oil some of us use at home, the Adani group has their presence -- and a significant one -- across various sectors.

Gautam Adani was briefly the world's second richest person just before the report was unveiled that saw his fortunes dip by over 60 per cent from peak levels.

The combined market-capitalisation (market-cap) of all listed Adani group firms has plunged nearly Rs 7.11 trillion since January 24 when the Hindenburg report was made public.

The stock of Adani Enterprises -- the group's flagship company -- tanked from Rs 3,443 levels on January 24 to around Rs 900 levels in a few days once the report was published.

It has, however, regained some of the lost ground and is currently trading at Rs 1,824 levels.

Meanwhile, Mukesh Ambani, 65, of Reliance Industries Limited, too, saw a dip in his fortunes as his wealth fell 20 per cent to $82 billion during this period.

He, however, has retained the wealthiest Asian title for the third consecutive year, the report said.

At the bourses, the stock of Mukesh Ambani-controlled RIL, hit its 52-week low level of Rs 2,180 recently on the BSE, and has been one of the worst performers among the Sensex pack thus far in calendar year 2023, slipping nearly 11 per cent as compared to a fall of around 5 per cent in the S&P BSE Sensex during this period.

The fall in the stock, analysts believe, is mostly due to the overall dip in the markets and a risk-off sentiment, which in turn has impacted large-caps, including RIL.

'In stark contrast to the 2022 M3M Hurun Global Rich List, India is among the top three countries when it comes to wealth depletion. When countries such as China and USA had 178 and 123 billionaires respectively, who lost more than $1 billion, India has 41 billionaires who lost more than a billion-dollar YoY in 2023,' the report said.

World view

The fall in billionaire's wealth was not restricted to Indian billionaires.

At the global level, the number of billionaires dropped to 3,112 in 2023 as compared to 3,384 in the previous corresponding period, which the report expects to reverse in the short-run and accelerate in the long-run once the equity markets stage a recovery.

Anas Rahman Junaid, managing director and chief researcher, Hurun India, attributes this sharp drop in wealth of billionaires across the globe to a host of reasons, which include rising inflation, rate hikes by the global central banks and the strengthening dollar.

Among the lot, Jeff Bezos of Amazon was the biggest loser globally who saw his wealth plunge $70 billion in 2023 to $118 billion, followed by Tesla's Elon Musk, who saw his fortunes dip $48 billion to $157 billion.

'Russia-Ukraine war, developments in China, rising inflation and the response of global central banks, crypto collapse and 'funding winter' are some of the key reasons that impacted sentiment. All this had an impact on the stock market and in turn on the fortunes of the promoters.

"The top 4 billionaires in the US (Jeff Bezos, Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Elon Musk) have lost a combined $200 billion in wealth in 2022-2-23," Junaid said, adding, "which is more than what all Indian billionaires put together have lost during this period."

Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com