Anish Vij
Gautam Adani is one of the world's richest men who just lost $100bn in a matter of days.
The 60-year-old is the chairman of Adani Group specialising in infrastructure and is worth a whopping $61.7bn, according to Forbes' 'real-time billionaires list'.
His net worth, at the time of writing, makes him the 17th richest man in the world.
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Just weeks ago he was sat in third place of the world's rich list.
Adani became India's second-largest cement producer in 2022, after acquiring Swiss firm Holcim's Indian assets for $10.5 billion.
Yet, the billionaire's flagship, which owns a number of companies, have seen $108bn wiped off their market value over the past few days.
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His personal wealth went down by $48bn, as reported by Forbes.
This all began after US-based activist investment firm, Hindenburg Research, published a report which alleges that Adani 'is pulling the largest con in corporate history' following a two-year investigation.
The report accuses the Adani Group of decades of accounting fraud and stock manipulation.
Adani Group have called the report 'a malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations'.
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They also referred to the document a 'calculated attack on India'.
UNILAD has contacted Adani Group for comment.
However, investors have clearly taken the report very seriously and have decided to pull their money out.
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The share price of the group's other businesses have also continued to fall.
This all happened a day before shares of Adani Enterprises were due to go on sale on 25 January, which was dubbed as India's largest ever secondary share offering.
This week, Adani has attempted to reassure investors after Adani Enterprises called off its share sale.
He said that the decision will not affect 'our existing operations and future plans'.
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Despite the panic caused by the report, Vinayak Chatterjee, founder and managing trustee of the Infravision Foundation, referred to the situation "a short-term blip".
"I have observed this group for a quarter century as an infrastructure expert," he told BBC.
"I see varied operating projects from ports, airports, cements to renewables which are solid, stable and are generating a health cash flow.
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"They are completely safe from the ups and downs of what happens in the stock market."
Adani was a college dropout and transformed his father's textile shop into his own commodities trading firm.
Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL) is the flagship company of Adani Group who has built the likes of Adani Ports & SEZ, Adani Transmission, Adani Power, Adani Green Energy, Adani Total Gas and Adani Wilmar.