Gautam Adani back in Forbes list of richest despite market setbacks

After a report by the US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research rattled investor sentiments towards Adani Group stocks, the chairman of the group, Gautam Adani, had fallen off the Forbes list of the 20 richest people.

Adani had briefly fallen off the list of the world's 20 richest on February 3, after losing $12 billion in just a day. The combined market capitalisation of the Adani Group companies has eroded by Rs 9.5 lakh crore since January 24 following the Hindenburg report.

Until a few weeks ago, Gautam Adani was the richest person in Asia and the third richest in the world. However, the market rout saw him falling off the top 20 list.

Gautam Adani is now back in the Forbes list of the top 20 richest, at the 17 position. Eleventh in the list is Mukesh Ambani. According to Forbes real-time tracker, Adani's estimated net worth is $61.1 billion. Ambani's estimated net worth is $82.2 billion.

Before the market crash of his group's stocks, Adani's estimated net worth was $126.4 billion.

In the past few days, Adani shares have been witnessing a free fall in the wake of the Hindenburg Research report which had levelled a series of allegations against the group, including “brazen accounting fraud, stock manipulation and money laundering.” However, after the group, on Monday, said the promoters would pre-pay $1,114 million for the release of pledged shares of its firms ahead of the maturity in September 2024, investors seemed to be warming up to Adani shares.

On Tuesday, the Adani Group's shares witnessed a mixed trend with Adani Enterprises raising more than 15 per cent. Shares of Adani Ports, Ambuja Cement, Adani Wilmar and ACC too gained on Tuesday, while Adani Power, Adani Transmission, Adani Green Energy continued the downward trend.