Industrialist Gautam Adani has once again surpassed Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries to become Asia’s richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Adani’s net worth on Friday reached $97.6 billion (nearly Rs 8.1 lakh crore) after rising by $7.7 billion (nearly Rs 6.4 thousand crore) in a day. Ambani’s net worth stands marginally lower at $97 billion (nearly Rs 8 lakh crore).
With this, Adani has clinched the spot of the world’s twelfth-richest person while Ambani is at the thirteenth position.
The rally in the net worth of the Adani Group chairman came after the Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to transfer an investigation into allegations of round-tripping and money laundering by the Adani Group from the Securities and Exchange Board of India to a Special Investigation Team.
The court was hearing a batch of public interest litigations seeking a court-monitored investigation into allegations by United States-based firm Hindenburg Research that the Adani Group was involved in accounting fraud and improper use of tax havens.
In January, Hindenburg Research alleged in a report that Gautam Adani’s group was pulling off the “largest con in corporate history”. The report claimed that the conglomerate had been involved in accounting fraud, improper use of tax havens and money laundering.
The Adani Group rejected these allegations but stock prices of the conglomerate’s listed companies still fell sharply. By the end of January, the Adani Group’s market losses had ballooned to around $65 billion and exceeded $100 billion in the first week of February.
On February 1, Adani slipped to the fifteenth position on Forbes’ list of the world’s wealthiest persons, with an estimated wealth of $75.1 billion (nearly Rs 6.2 lakh crore). The industrialist had fallen to the thirty-fourth position on the list with his net worth coming down to $35.1 billion (nearly Rs 2.9 lakh crore).
In a major fallout of the report, the conglomerate’s flagship company Adani Enterprises was also forced to call off its Rs 20,000 crore follow-on public offering that was meant to repay debt.
However, after the verdict on Wednesday, the Adani Group’s stocks surged up to 12%, resulting in the overall market capitalisation going above Rs 15.11 trillion from Rs 14.47 trillion a day earlier.
The shares of Adani Enterprises closed 2.45% higher at Rs 3,003.95 while those of Adani Ports rose 1.39% to Rs 1,093.50, according to Livemint.
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