Losing 50 billion US Dollars in a month: The ups and downs of India's top billionaire

India's Gautam Adani was, in January 2023, the richest man in Asia and the fourth-wealthiest man in the world, then in a few days he lost half of his wealth.

Adani's name was usually listed along with Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Then, in a matter of days, it was all over. What happened?

New York-based investment research firm Hindenburg Research published a condemning report on the Adani Group, accusing the Indian billionaire of fraud and stock manipulation.

The Adani Group, CNN reported, is considering legal action against Hindenburg but the damage seems to be done.

Image: Tingey Injury Law Firm

CNN reports that investors have been bailing and Adani Group's shares have lost more than half of their value.

2022 saw the international business world taken by surprise when Indian billionaire Gautam Adani was declared one of the wealthiest men in the world by Bloomberg, with an estimated worth of 130 billion US dollars.

Now, the college dropout turned billionaire has lost a little more than 61 billion US dollars from his own personal wealth.

This puts into a difficult position the man who was considered in 2022 the richest person in India and the whole of Asia. But who's he and how he got where he is today?

Gautam Adani was born in 1961 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat an Indian state right in the middle of the country’s western coast.

Image: Milan Chauhan / Unsplash

The Financial Times writes that, unlike most of the country’s business elite, Adani worked his way up instead of being born into wealth.

The future billionaire established his own company in 1988, after briefly working as a diamond trader in Mumbai.

Image: Previn Samuel / Unsplash

The company that eventually became Adani Group started out as an exporter-importer enterprise. It grew throughout the years to cover diverse businesses such as ports, power plants, mining, food processing, and infrastructure.

In 1994, Bloomberg writes, Adani set up a harbor facility to handle its own cargo at Mundra Port. After personally negotiating with over 200 landowners, the Gujarat-born billionaire turned it into the largest port in the country.

Besides being the largest port operator in India, Bloomberg highlights that Adani Group is also the country’s largest coal trader and thermal coal power producer, getting into the power generation business in 2009.

However, Adani's involvement in the coal industry has brought him all sorts of protests and controversies related to the environment and the use of land.

Meanwhile, The Financial Times reported in 2020 that Adani Green Energy, his renewable branch, was planning to invest 6 billion US dollars to build solar plants.
Many have accused the project, one of the biggest related to green energy in the world, of 'greenwashing'.

Nonetheless, Adani Group has also accumulated over 30 billion US dollars worth of debt, according to data cited by The Financial Times. Despite concerns about growing too fast, Adani has always managed to keep his company in good standing.

Having friends to lend a hand has also helped. One of them is Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. No surprise that The Financial Times labels the billionaire as “Modi’s Rockefeller”.

Both hailing from the state of Gujarat, The Financial Times writes that Adani was a key supporter of Modi as he rose into national politics.

When Modi became Prime Minister of India in 2014, he reportedly flew to New Delhi in Adani’s private jet. Here you can see the Indian billionaire during Modi's swearing-in ceremony.

Adani’s net worth has increased by 260% since Modi came to power, The Financial Times highlights. Some Indian citizens have been wary of the billionaire's influence within the national government.

Following his personal motto, “Nation building”, Adani earned many government contracts for public infrastructure projects.

When Modi’s government privatized six airports in 2018, all six of them when under the control of Adani despite having no previous record of managing airports.

Overnight, he became India’s foremost airport operator. Among them, he owns 74% of Mumbai International Airport, pictured here.

Image: Lenstravelier / Unsplash

Forbes writes that in May 2022 Adani made his foray into the cement business, acquiring Swiss cement company Holcim’s stake in India for 10.5 billion US dollars.

Now Modi's government has been pressured by the opposition to start an investigation of Hindenburg's claims about the Adani Group. Modi has been accused of remaining silent about the charges.

It's hard to say what's next for Adani, who has gone from the fourth-wealthiest man in the world to the 20th spot, according to Bloomberg. Will he continue to go down?