Gautam Adani is planning to ramp up the transparency levels at his family offices by appointing a CEO and pick auditors from the top accounting firms as the billionaire industrialist looks to douse criticism related to the role of the group’s offshore entities.

A Bloomberg report said that Adani whose net worth is $105 billion — according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index — is making these moves to bring a level of disclosure often associated with listed companies.

It added the family is in negotiations with two of the big six accounting firms to audit the family offices’ accounts.

A spokesperson from the Adani group refrained from making any comments on the report.

However, sources close to the conglomerate said the founders may appoint an auditor from any of the top four firms: Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC. The quartet along with Grant Thorton and MSKA make up the ‘Big 6’ accounting firms in India.

The Bloomberg report added that the founders are planning to hire a team of about five people, led by a CEO and a chief investment officer, who will initially report to group chief financial officer, Jugeshinder Singh. They could subsequently report to Adani.

So far, the family’s two wealth offices have been run informally with the help of group firms’ CFOs.

The developments come days after US short-seller Hindenburg alleged in another report that Sebi chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband had investments in obscure offshore entities in Bermuda and Mauritius, that were used by Vinod Adani, the elder brother of Gautam Adani, to invest in Indian markets and pump up stock prices of group firms.

Reacting to the US short-seller’s allegations, the Adani group had said that they are “malicious, mischievous and manipulative selections of publicly available information to arrive at pre-determined conclusions for personal profiteering with wanton disregard for facts and the law’’.

In January last year, Hindenburg had accused the Adani group of stock manipulation and accounting fraud which wiped out billions of its market cap.

However, the conglomerate recouped a large part of these losses as it trimmed debt even as overseas investors such as GQG Partners raised its stake in group firms.

Adani’s latest attempt is seen as a move to improve its image after it recently claimed better debt metrics and financial position for the quarter ended June 30, 2024.

The new family office management, which reportedly could be operational from April 2025, will also look after the founders’ shareholding across the listed Adani group firms, apart from preparing financial reports for any additional disclosures the family wants to make.

Cement stake sale

Adani group promoters may sell up to 3 per cent of their shares in Ambuja Cements as part of a regular adjustment of holdings they carry to keep stake across the ports-to-energy conglomerate at desired levels, sources said.

Promoters will sell about 7 crore shares, or 2.84 per cent, in the cement maker for ₹4,198 crore, PTI quoting the sources said. The offer price of ₹600 apiece is at a 5 per cent discount to Thursday’s closing price of ₹632.90 on BSE.

The Gautam Adani-led promoter group holds shares worth $125 billion across the 10 listed companies of the conglomerate.

Sources said the adjustments in the holdings are done on a regular basis to keep the promoters’ interest at a desired level.

The equity adjustments typically range from 0.5 per cent to 3 per cent.

The stake sale in Ambuja Cement is part of that and not linked to any debt reduction, they said adding the debt is at the company level.

Promoters may look to shed some stake in Adani Power in October, the sources added.