Adani Group boss Gautam Adani lost $28 billion over the last year – or an average of ₹3,000 crore per week in 2022 – and his fortune dropped by over 60 per cent from its peak (when he was the world’s second richest man) due to Hindenburg’s January report alleging financial misconduct, according to the M3M Hurun Global Rich List 2023 published Wednesday.
Adani has also lost the title of ‘second richest Asian’ to Chinese billionaire Zhong Shanshan, who is the founder of a beverage company and majority owner of a bio-pharmacy enterprise.
Further, Adani has been overtaken by Reliance Industries Limited chairman Mukesh Ambani, who lost $21 billIon last year according to the Hurun Rich List. Ambani is now the only Indian to feature in a list of the top 10 billionaires – ninth with a fortune of $82 billion.
Ambani, who retains the title of the world’s wealthiest Asian individual for a third straight year, is followed by Adani and the Serum Institute’s Cyrus Poonawalla with $28 billion.
The rout of Adani stocks after the Hindenburg report slashed the Gujarat tycoon’s fortune down to $53 billion from a high of over $150 billion in September 2022, and dropped him outside the top 35 in Forbes’ global rich list. His conglomerate lost an estimated $120 billion.
The global picture
According to the survey, there are 3,112 billionaires – 269 fewer but up from pre-Covid levels.
However, the world also lost five billionaires every week in 2022, leading to a decrease of around 10 per cent of global wealth to approximately $13.7 trillion.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was the big loser (in dollar terms) and was out $70 billion.
In India
India has 41 billionaires who have lost more than a billion dollars year over year, compared to 178 and 123 billionaires in China and the United States, respectively. In terms of millionaires who have added $1 billion or more in the last year, India comes sixth.
