The capital flight from companies owned by Indian businessman, Gautam Adani, until recently Asia’s richest man, continued unabated on Wednesday, with the group totalling $92 billion in lost stock-market value.
The Indian industrialist, who has built a fortune in recent years, is active in several sectors: from ports and coal to data, media companies and renewable energy. That made him one of the three richest people on earth last year.
However, a report by Hindenburg Research – a US short seller that speculates on falling stock prices – puts Adani in a tight spot. According to the report, released on 24 January, the industrialist is guilty of all sorts of financial wrongdoing, which he denies.
The report has triggered a selling wave of shares in Adani’s companies on the Mumbai Stock Exchange in recent days. On Wednesday, the price of shares in Adani Enterprises, the main part of the group, fell by 28%, following reports that Credit Suisse was no longer accepting Adani company bonds as collateral.
This represents $92 billion in lost stock-market value, Bloomberg financial news agency calculated.
Gautam Adani’s personal fortune is also suffering from his stock market woes. He has already lost more than $40 billion since the report and is no longer Asia’s richest man. That honour now goes to another Indian businessman, Mukesh Ambani.
