Elon Musk vs Gautam Adani: $48 billion surge in Tesla owner's wealth bigger than Adani's fortunes

From being the second richest person at $150 billion in September 2022, Gautam Adani has seen his wealth eroding two-third or $80 billion to less than $40 billion at last count. Tesla Owner, who just reclaimed the richest tag, on the other hand, saw his fortunes rising a whopping $48 billion in the first two months of the year. Musk's wealth too swung wildly, notionally -- from a high of $288 billion in April 2022 to $126 billion earlier this year, but has since recovered.

The SpaceX owner was last valued at $186 billion, thanks to a 90 per cent surge in shares of US-listed Tesla. The electric vehicle maker commanded a market cap of $651 billion. This is against an up to 80 per cent drop in 10 of Adani group shares this year, the worst being Adani Total Gas Ltd. Adani last stood at 30th position in the billionaire list.

In fact, the list of top losers at Bloomberg Billionaire index is led by three Indians. The other two are Mukesh Ambani (down $7.4 billion) and Radhakishan Damani (down $2.84 billion)

For Gautam Adani, Adani Total Gas Ltd has fallen 80 per cent this year, followed by Adani Green Energy (down 73 per cent), Adani Transmission Ltd (down 53 per cent) and Adani Power (down 48 per cent), among others. Adani group stocks had together lost $150 billion in market value, only to see some recovery on hopes the group would soon allay investor concerns by securing financing for its coming debt payments.

As per a Reuters report, Adani Group has told its creditors that it has secured a $3 billion loan from a sovereign wealth fund. Two sources with knowledge of the matter the credit line from the sovereign wealth fund could be upsised to $5 billion.

The debt level of the group have been in focus of late, after allegations of stock manipulation and accounting fraud put Adani group shares under severe under pressure.

Adani Group collectively carries about three times as much debt as it should, Valuation guru Aswath Damodaran said this week adding that the group was overlevered.

The Adani group had a gross debt of Rs 2.26 lakh crore as of September 30, according to a stock exchange filing. Total cash and cash equivalents was Rs 31,646 crore. It faces a repayment obligation of Rs 17,166 crore between January 2023 and March 2024.

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