Gautam Adani in fourth spot on world's richest list after stock manipulation charges

Digital Desk: Billionaire businessman Gautam Adani drops a rank on the Forbes list of the world's richest people on Thursday after losing more than 5.7 percent of his wealth. This comes a day after shares of Adani Group companies lost over Rs 80,000 crore in market capitalisation after New York-based investor research firm Hindenburg Research, which specialises in short selling, accused Adani's companies of "brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over decades".

Adani, who had a net worth of $119 billion, was topped by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who had a net worth of just more than $120 billion. Adani has added more than $100 billion in the last three years, primarily from stock price increases in the group's seven core listed companies, which have increased by an average of 819 percent over that time.

Hindenburg Research acknowledged in the report that it has "took a short position in Adani Group Companies through US-traded bonds and non-Indian-traded derivative instruments". The report comes barely two days before the group's flagship Adani Enterprises follow-on public offer of Rs 20,000 crore opens for subscription on January 27.

The Adani Group's shares plunged up to 8%, while the benchmark Sensex fell 1.27 percent or 774 points to close at 60,205.06, and the NSE Nifty Index fell 226 points to conclude at 17,891.95 due to widespread selling by international and domestic investors. 

"The timing of the report's publication indicates a bold, mala fide purpose to destroy the Adani Group's reputation with the primary goal of hurting the impending FPO from Adani Enterprises, the largest FPO ever in India," the Adani Group said in a statement. Investors have always placed their trust in the Adani Group based on rigorous analysis and reports issued by financial professionals and prominent national and international credit rating organisations."

In a single day, the Adani Group's market value decreased by Rs 80,078 crore to Rs 18,37,978 crore. Adani Transmission fell by 8.06 percent, ACC by 7.11 percent, Ambuja Cements by 6.83 percent, Adani Port by 6.03 percent, Adani Power and Adani Wilmar by 5%, Adani Total Gas by 3.61 percent, Adani Green by 2.12 percent, and Adani Enterprises by 1.18 percent.