Gautam Adani is about to cede his position as Asia's richest man to another Indian billionaire as shares in his corporate empire continue to plummet following allegations of fraud by an American short-seller.
In an investigation published last Tuesday, Hindenburg Research accused Adani's ports-to-stream group of "brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud over decades"
Adani Group called the report "baseless" and "malicious" and said it was considering legal action, but the market reaction was brutal and unrelenting.
The conglomerate, which includes seven publicly traded companies, has lost more than $90 billion in market value in the week since the Hindenburg report was published.
That stock market plunge has eroded Adani's personal fortune by nearly $40 billion. A week ago, he was once the fourth richest man or woman in the world. Now he ranks 10th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and is on the verge of being overtaken as Asia's richest man by Mukesh Ambani, India's energy and telecommunications entrepreneur. The Bloomberg index is updated at the end of each trading day in New York.
Ambani, who controls Reliance Industries, is already ahead of Adani in Forbes' real-time ranking of billionaires. Ambani's net worth is $83 billion, making him the ninth richest person in the world, while Adani's fortune is estimated at about $75 billion, according to Forbes.
The turmoil comes despite a brief respite for Adani on Tuesday, when his flagship company, Adani Enterprises, issued $2.5 billion worth of new shares. The capital increase was touted as India's largest initial public offering by a listed company. After a hesitant start, the offering was fully subscribed just before the close of trading in Mumbai.
However, interest from retail investors was muted, and the share price plunged again on Wednesday. Shares of Adani Enterprises closed down almost 30% on Wednesday, while Adani Ports lost almost 20%.
At the height of his wealth final year, Adani used to be the second richest individual in the world, beforehand of Jeff Bezos. It was the first time a person from Asia had ranked so high on the Bloomberg list, which has long been dominated by white tech entrepreneurs.