It took Gautam Adani a year to return to the elite club worth over $100 billion.
The Indian mogul has regained much of his wealth in early 2023 after a short-selling attack sent stocks plummeting. On Wednesday, Adani's net worth increased by $2.7 billion to $100.7 billion, the highest since Hindenburg Research slammed his Adani Group as “brazen.” Market manipulation and fraud — Adani Group denies the allegations.
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Shares in his flagship company, Adani Enterprises, rose for an eighth day on Wednesday after last week's earnings report in which profits jumped 130%. He is currently the 12th richest person in the world, just one place behind his compatriot Mukesh Ambani, according to the Bloomberg Rich List.
While Mr Ambani's wealth hit a record high earlier this month, Mr Adani's wealth remains about $50 billion below its 2022 peak.
Adani's wealth fell by more than $80 billion in the month following the report, hitting a new low of $37.7 billion. At one point, his conglomerate lost more than $150 billion in market value, and it took months to bring back investors and lenders, pay down debt and ease regulatory concerns.
Rajiv Jain's GQG Partners LLC poured about $4 billion into Adani group companies last year, while Qatar Investment Authority invested about $500 million and Total Energy SE invested in Adani Green, the green arm of the conglomerate. – Bets $300 million on a joint venture with Energy. Earlier this week, people familiar with the discussions said Adani Green was in talks to raise about $500 million through dollar bonds in its first overseas issuance since the Hindenburg report.
India's Supreme Court in January ordered the local market regulator to conclude its investigation into the group within three months and said no further investigation was necessary, helping to boost Adani Enterprises' share price.
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Mr. Adani's recovery, and India's surge in wealth more generally, comes as global investors increasingly focus on the country, leading to higher stock prices. Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley are among the banks endorsing India as a major investment destination for the next decade.
Mr Adani, 61, dropped out of university in the early 1980s to try his luck in Mumbai's diamond industry, before turning to coal and ports. Since then, his empire has expanded into everything from airports to data centers, media and green energy, with a focus on areas that Prime Minister Narendra Modi considers critical to achieving India's long-term economic goals. At its peak, Mr. Adani's fortune reached $150 billion, ranking him the third richest person in the world.
Adani lost more wealth than anyone in 2023, but regained $16.4 billion this year, one of the biggest gains among the ultra-rich tracked by Bloomberg.
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