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Mar 23, 2023

Gautam Adani Lost Rs 3,000 Crore a Week in 2022-23, but Still Third Richest Energy Entrepreneur

Separately, S&P has said it could take a negative rating action on the Adani Group firms if any investigation uncovers any serious wrongdoing, including misreporting, or undisclosed related-party loans.
Gautam Adani, chairperson of Adani Group. Photo: PTI

New Delhi: Gautam Adani lost $28 billion in wealth, or Rs 3,000 crore a week in 2022-23, but despite that, he’s still the third richest energy entrepreneur in the world, according to the 2023 M3M Hurun Global Rich List.

The wealth of Adani and his family is $53 billion now, Business Standard reported, citing the Hurun list.

Adani was briefly the world’s second richest person just before US short seller Hindenburg Research released its report on January 26, accusing the group of stock manipulation and accounting fraud.

Since then, his fortunes have dipped by over 60% from peak levels. His net worth declined by 35% over the past year, the Hurun report added.

The combined market capitalisation of all listed Adani Group firms has plunged nearly Rs 7.11 trillion since January 24.

Meanwhile, with $82 billion in wealth, Mukesh Ambani is the richest telecom entrepreneur in the M3M Hurun Global Rich List. He has managed to retain the wealthiest Asian title for the third consecutive year, the newspaper reported.

The second richest Asian was Zhong Shanshan of YST, a Russia-based seller of alloy and steel wheels.

“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.

Also read: Explained: Factors Behind Changes in Stock Prices of Adani Group Firms

Adani’s related-party transactions under scanner

Meanwhile, the ratings agency S&P has said it could take a negative rating action on the Adani Group companies if any investigation uncovers any serious wrongdoing, including misreporting, undisclosed related-party loans, or cash leakage, the Times of India reported.

Much of the focus of the ratings agency is on Adani Group’s related-party transactions.

“We already assess governance as a relative weakness in our rating analysis of Adani Group entities due to significant promoter control. frequent related-party transactions, lack of transparency of the credit position of the promoter-held entities, and aggressive growth appetite,” S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Richard Langberg told the daily.

Hindenburg Research alleged that the Adani Group improperly used offshore tax havens and manipulated stocks. But the group has denied the allegations.

In fact, the short seller mentioned Vinod Adani, Gautam Adani’s elder brother, 151 times in its report, alleging irregularities. Denying any wrongdoing, the group had said that Vinod Adani “does not hold any managerial position in Adani listed companies”.

However, on March 16, in a complete reversal of what it had said earlier, the group acknowledged that Vinod Adani is part of the “promoter group” of various listed entities.

While the Securities and Exchange Board of India is probing allegations on the Adani Group, several investigative news reports have found links of many offshore funds with the Adani family.

On March 22, the Financial Times reported that almost half of all foreign direct investment into Gautam Adani’s conglomerate in recent years came from “opaque offshore entities” linked to his family.

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