Gautam Adani slips to seventh on rich list after US short seller report

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January 27

India's Gautam Adani dropped four places to become the world's seventh-richest person on Friday as the companies in his empire lost a combined $48 billion in market capitalisation since Wednesday following a scathing report by a U.S. short-seller.

Hindenburg Research had raised concerns about high debt at the group and accused it of improper use of entities set up in offshore tax havens - a charge the group denies.

Adani has regularly been in the news in his home country due to the meteoric rise of his business empire and numerous deals.

Here are some facts about Gautam Adani, the first-generation tycoon, whose net worth dropped to $96.6 billion from $121 billion before the Hindenburg report, according to Forbes.

Adani was born on June 24, 1962, in Ahmedabad city in the western Indian state of Gujarat - from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi also comes.

He dropped out of school at the age of 15 after completing class 10.

He established the Adani Group in 1988, beginning with commodities trading.

He is married to dentist Priti Adani and has two sons, Karan and Jeet.

Elder son Karan is head of Adani Ports and SEZ, and holds an economics degree from Purdue University in the United States. Karan is married to Paridhi, the daughter of Cyril Shroff, who runs one of the biggest corporate law firms in the country.

Jeet is vice president, Adani Group finance.

Adani's brother Rajesh sits on the board of directors of the flagship company Adani Enterprises.

Gautam Adani's nephew Pranav also sits on the board of Adani Enterprises and heads the company's city gas distribution, agro, real estate and natural resources businesses.

Adani was one of many people stuck inside Mumbai's Taj Mahal Hotel when in 2008 gunmen went on a killing spree. Reuters

The Tribune