It's a one-man polycrisis with "few parallels" according to Bloomberg writer Blake Schmidt. What is happening right now to Indian billionaire Gautam Adani is, for Blake, a downfall "so spectacular that it defies just about every historical comparison." Nonetheless, in his analysis piece, Blake has a go. Adani has "lost more than Sam Bankman-Fried and been wiped out almost as fast as Elon Musk… All told, Adani's wealth wipeout is among the most severe in terms of scale and speed since Bloomberg began tracking billionaires in 2012." There's peril for everyday Indians too: Adani's troubles threaten public sector investments and the country's important diplomatic year. Gautam Adani, billionaire and chairman of Adani Group, during a video speech on monitors in Mumbai, India. Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg A quick recap: at the time of writing, Adani Group has shed $112 billion in market value since Hindenburg Research accused it of stock manipulation and accounting fraud in a Jan. 24 report. To be clear, that was barely ten days ago. Since then, Gautam Adani has lost his place in the world's top 10 richest people, and fallen off his pedestal as not only Asia's richest person, but also India's. The ripple effect is in full ripple: Boris Johnson's brother, Jo Johnson, has stepped down as director of an Adani-linked firm — Elara Capital. Meanwhile BlackRock, the world's biggest asset manager, is among at least 200 financial institutions around the world to have had exposure to Adani Group's $8 billion in dollar bonds. In India, our writers argue, there will be an impact on both foreign investment and confidence in the country's Prime Minister. Adani has become the poster child for the Modi administration's use of private capital to boost infrastructure and domestic manufacturing. As concerning are the amounts Indian institutions have invested in Adani enterprises. Now that the conglomerate's ability to keep delivering is coming into question, the market crash has spilled into politics. Parliament had to be adjourned for the day after pandemonium broke out when the upper house chair rejected opposition lawmakers' demands for a debate on Adani. 2023 is a key year for India — it looks set to become the world's most populous nation and hosts world leaders in September with the G20. The government must be hoping this tale of one powerful man's downfall can be contained. Britain's blue-chip stocks closed at an all-time high today, for the first time since 2018. The FTSE 100 Index climbed as much as 0.9%, as the pound slumped after the US dollar rallied on stronger-than-expected jobs data. Having managed to avoid a selloff last year on the sterling's weakness, the FTSE 100 Index joined a global equities rally in 2023 with a nearly 6% gain, helping the British large-cap benchmark scale an all-time high. |
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