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Two of the top ten richest people in the world had rather unusual weeks, posting one of the biggest gains and one of the biggest losses ever.
Indian billionaire, Gautam Adani, lost a stunning $31 billion, or 24% of his fortune, while Elon Musk gained nearly as much, thanks to a strong quarterly earnings report. Forbes tracked the change in fortunes from the market close on Friday January 20 through the end of the day Friday January 27.
Asia’s richest man, Adani emerged the biggest loser after bombshell headlines emerged late Tuesday evening following the release of a 100-page report by short seller, Hindenburg Research, alleging the “largest con in corporate history,” including claims of stock manipulation and accounting fraud.
Adani started the week as the world’s third richest person, worth $127.8 billion. His fortune fell by $6.5 billion on Wednesday. The Indian stock market was closed Thursday for a holiday. On Friday, the free fall continued, wiping $22.6 billion from his fortune in hours.
Adani’s $31.2 billion drop this week dropped him four spots to seventh richest, with a net worth of $96.6 billion as of yesterday’s market close.
The Hindenburg Research report alleges that the Adani family used dozens of shell companies for stock manipulation and money laundering purposes. Adani Group Chief Financial Officer, Jugeshinder Singh, dismissed the Hindenburg report, calling it “selective misinformation” in a statement shared with Forbes.
In February last year, Adani overtook fellow Indian billionaire, Mukesh Ambani, to become the richest person in Asia and No. 10 richest in the world, worth just over $90 billion. He zoomed past Warren Buffett later that month to become world’s fifth-wealthiest and moved ahead of Bill Gates in July after the Microsoft cofounder gave $20 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Then in September, Adani briefly became the world’s second-richest person, worth $155 billion, overtaking Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and then-number two Bernard Arnault, in the same week. He soon dropped back to world’s third richest, still ahead of Bezos, where he remained until this week.
As bad as Adani’s week was, Musk’s swung the opposite way. The Tesla and Twitter CEO was the biggest winner as Tesla’s stock jumped 33% following a very strong quarterly earnings report released on Wednesday, lifting his fortune by $28.3 billion.
Tesla, whose stock has fallen by more than two-thirds in the past year, much of it since Musk announced plans to buy Twitter last April, surprised many by reporting record sales and profits. Investors cheered the news, sending the stock up 11% yesterday and 33% this week.
“Long term, I am convinced that Tesla will be the most valuable company on earth,” said Musk on Wednesday’s earnings call. Musk remains the world’s second richest person, behind No. 1 French luxury goods tycoon, Arnault.
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