Mumbai: Billionaire Gautam Adani, Asia's second-richest till last week, was on course to become Asia's richest by dethroning Mukesh Ambani, but his dream run up the global wealth rankings is faltering after reports of national share depository (NSDL) freezing accounts of offshore investors in Adani Group companies earlier this week, making investors poorer by Rs 2 lakh crore. 


Even after clarification that NSDL did not freeze the accounts of the offshore investors in Adani firms, investors continued to dump Adani Group shares, making the 58-year old billionaire poorer by $11 billion as Adani lost more money this week, more than anyone else in the world, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. 


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Till the beginning of this month, Gautam Adani was one of the fastest-growing billionaires who added more wealth than anyone else in the world after French tycoon Bernard Arnault, chairman of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world's largest luxury goods maker.


Adani's net worth was pegged at $78.6 billion as of June 8, which had fallen by $11 billion to $67.6 billion as of June 18. Still, Adani managed to more than double his wealth since the start of 2021.


Fall in shares


Shares of six listed Adani firms lost over Rs 2 lakh crore in the last one week, after most of them touched their 52-week high. The bulk of the holdings of Albula Investment Fund, Cresta Fund, and APMS Investment Fund -- about Rs 43,600 crore -- are shares of Adani’s firms or over 90% of their assets under management in Adani group companies. 


Shares of Adani Enterprises had fallen to Rs 1487.8 on Friday from its 52-week high of Rs 1718 on June 7, Adani Port and SEZ shares have fallen to Rs 695 from its 52-week high of Rs 901 on June 9. 


Similarly, Adani Power shares fell to Rs 114.9 on Friday from its 52-week high of Rs 167.5 on June 9, while Adani Transmission shares fell to Rs 1236 on Friday from its 52-week high of Rs 1647 on June 7. 


Shares of Adani Green Energy had fallen to Rs 1063 on Friday from Rs 1265 on June 7, and shares of Adani Total Gas Limited had dropped to 1258 from Rs 1626 on June 11.  


Adani Group's clarification


Soon after the Adani Group shares started tanking on Monday, the Group clarified that reports of accounts of foreign investors being frozen are"blatantly erroneous" and said it was “done to deliberately mislead the investing community.” 


These overseas funds “have been investors in Adani Enterprises for more than a decade,” Adani Group said in a June 14 statement. “We urge all our stakeholders not to be perturbed by market speculations.”


Adani group companies also shared the written confirmation from the Registrar and Transfer Agent that the offshore funds’ demat accounts in which Adani shares were held “are not frozen.”


However, investors kept selling Adani shares throughout the week. 


On Friday, Adani Enterprises shares closed up 8.76% at Rs 1487.85, Adani Port and SEZ shares closed up 7.39% at Rs 694.60, while shares Adani Power, Adani Transmission, Adani Gren Energy, and Adani Total Gas Limited dipped 5% each to close at Rs 114.9, Rs 1235.9, Rs 1062.75 and Rs 1258 respectively. 


Poor analyst coverage


Despite having a combined market capitalization of over Rs 9 lakh crore till last week, six of the listed Adani Group firms had little or no analyst coverage except Adani Port and SEZ. Surprisingly, Adani Green Energy Limited, the most valued Adani Group firm, had no analyst coverage as per data from Trendlyne, a capital market insights firm. A couple of brokerages tracks the flagship firm Adani Enterprises and Adani Total Gas Limited, while over two dozen brokerages track Adani Port and SEZ. 


Who replaced Adani?


The fall in Adani's fortune had made China's Zhong Shanshan with a net worth of $69.4 billion as the second richest Asian after Mukesh Ambani. Shanshan, chairman of Nongfu Spring, a bottled water company, is now the second richest Asian despite losing $8.8 billion this year as Adani lost more money in the last one week itself. Also, Adani's loss has widened the gap with Asia's wealthiest Mukesh Ambani with a net worth of Rs 84.5 billion, raking him 12th most affluent in the Bloomberg Billionaire List