Billionaire Gautam Adani out of top 10 richest list as Group stocks extend decline

Billionaire Gautam Adani, who is the richest Indian and Asian in the world, saw his fortune decline which led to his ranking on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index slipping out of the top ten in the world's richest list.

Net worth of Gautam Adani, who is the Chairman of Indian conglomerate Adani Group, stands at $84.4 billion while Jeff Bezos net worth rose to $124 billion, as of 31 January 2023.

Bernard Arnault with $189 billion remains the richest person on the earth. Gautam Adani saw his net worth decline by $8.21 billion in the last 24 hours, and he has lost $36.1 billion year-to-date , as per the Bloomberg data.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index prepares the daily rankings of the 500 wealthiest people. The figures are updated at the close of every trading day in New York.

Amazon's Jeff Bezos is now the third wealthiest person in the world, while the top two richest people on the planet are Bernard Arnault of Louis Vitton and Elon Musk, who is the owner of Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter.

Adani Total Gas Ltd. plunged by 10% daily limit to lead losses in most of the group’s stocks. Flagship Adani Enterprises Ltd. was up about 2% in early trading in Mumbai but remained below the floor price set for its follow-on share sale. 

Ten of the conglomerate’s companies have seen about $75 billion in market value erased as the rout entered a fourth session.

Overall subscription for the equity offering, largest of its kind in India, stood at just 3% as of end Monday, signaling that demand likely took a hit due to allegations from Hindenburg Research that the Indian conglomerate used a web of companies in tax havens to inflate revenue and stock prices as debt piled up.

That’s caused some analysts following the share sale to be skeptical about whether there will be enough demand under the current terms even after a $400 million investment from International Holding Co. IHC, which is controlled by a key member of Abu Dhabi’s ’s royal family.

Adani is seeking to execute the landmark share sale to repay some of the group companies’ debt just as it refutes allegations made by Hindenburg last week.

The rapid decline in share prices has eroded the billionaire’s personal wealth and also weighed on India’s stock market, where some of his companies were the top performers last year.