Gautam Adani’s wealth has dropped below the $50 billion mark after another day when most of his group companies sustained further losses on the stock market.

Adani is now worth $47.9 billion putting him down to 25th spot in the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index reckons he is worth $49.1 billion.

The Ahmedabad-based billionaire was worth $147 billion at a peak and was briefly the richest person in Asia and the second-richest person in the world with only Tesla and SpaceX billionaire Elon Musk richer than him. Forbes says he has lost $2.8 billion in the last 24 hours.

Adani has also been toppled from his position as India’s richest man. He’s now far behind Reliance’s Mukesh Ambani who is worth $85 billion and is the world’s eighth richest person.

The Adani Group’s flagship company Adani Enterprises began falling soon after the market opened and ended Rs 109 or 6.37 per cent down at Rs 1,613. At a peak the company share price was Rs 4,190 in November 2022.

Other group companies like Adani Transmission fell by Rs 46 to Rs 874 and hit the 5 per cent daily trading limits set by the exchange soon after the market opened. Similarly Adani Total Gas fell to Rs 925 the 5 per cent limit. Adani Green Energy fell by 4.99 per cent just short of the daily trading limit. Only three companies Adani Power, ACC and Ambuja Cements climbed slightly.

Finance professor Aswath Damodaran calculated that Adani Enterprises still has further to fall and that its correct valuation should be around Rs 946 leaving aside all the allegations made by Hindenburg Research, the New York-based shortseller. He, however, added that he expected the stock to grow speedily in the coming five years. Damodaran is considered an expert at stock valuation.

The Adani Group stocks had been climbing at meteoric speed through the last one year until they were brought crashing down by Hindenburg’s allegations of a score of corporate malfeasances. The group companies are believed to have lost $132 billion in market value since the Hindenburg report came out.

The Adani Group has been repaying loans and holding a series of conference calls in an effort to convince investors that it is not about to default on its multiple loans. It has billion-dollar projects on the anvil in a range of fields from ports, airports, roads green energy, power generation and transmission, gas distribution, data centres and the media.

Market analysts reckon the group will be forced to sell some holdings or companies to pay back investors and stabilise the group’s financial position. The fall in share prices has, in some cases, forced it to offer higher collateral to lenders who are getting alarmed by the sudden turn of events.

The group was forced to abandon its Rs 20,000-crore public offer after the Hindenburg report became public.