MUMBAI: Industrialist Gautam Adani’s fortunes have suffered a severe setback on concerns over corporate governance and accounting fraud, leading to Reliance Industries’ Mukesh Ambani replacing the Ahmedabad-based industrialist as the richest Indian.
Adani lost Rs 3,000 crore of wealth every week over the last year and his overall networth is down 60% from its peak, as per the M3M Hurun Global Rich List, which pegged Adani’s overall fortune at $53 billion as of mid-March.
Ambani also suffered a decline in his fortune but could displace Adani as the richest Indian as his networth declined by 20% to $82 billion.
Earlier, US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research published a report accusing the Adani group of large-scale accounting fraud and stock manipulation, leading to serious concerns and a free fall in Adani Group companies’ share prices. The Gautam Adani-led conglomerate has denied these allegations.
Both Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani have slipped down the global billionaires rankings because of the decline in wealth, with the former going down 11 places from the peak to be the 23rd richest in the world and the latter coming down to being the ninth richest in the world.