The Adani Phenomenon: Business Genius or Market Manipulation?

When it comes to Tycoons of India, one of the renowned names that comes to mind is none other than Gautam Adani. He is a self-made billionaire who has reached this height all by himself. He has been in the spotlight recently for his political connections & allegations against him for fraud and bribery. For these reasons, there have been notable fluctuations in Adani share prices. Recently, Adani shares have been performing badly in the market due to some factors, one of which is Gautam Adani himself, and some other factors are shareholder percentage change, bribery allegations, and fundraising announcements.

But before we head forward, let us see how big the Adani Empire is?

Gautam Adani, born in 1962 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, was from a middle-class family. He is a first-generation entrepreneur who has completed a journey of a billionaire from a college dropout. His father had a small business of textiles. Gautam Adani dropped out of his college degree in commerce in 1978 while he was in his second year, as he wished to start his own business rather than completing his studies. He went to Mumbai at the age of sixteen with just a few hundred rupees. He first started as a diamond sorter and learned trading in the initial 2 years; later he started his own diamond brokerage.

In 1981, he started managing the plastic unit in Ahmedabad upon his elder brother’s request and became a leading importer of raw plastic in India.

In the year 1988, Adani started a commodity trading company called Adani Exports and got benefits from economic liberalization in 1991 as India was now open to the global market.

His next project was to convert Mundra Port into India’s largest commercial port, for which he had won the contract from the government and established Mundra Port, which became India’s largest commercial port.

These were not enough for a high-thinking man like Adani. He later entered into the power sector in 2006, which was named Adani Power and is now one of the largest thermal power producers in India and expanded further into green energy in 2012.

How Gautam Adani got his success?

Gautam Adani is a visionary man with a great sight of the future. He has seen and calculated the risks early and took entry in the sectors that were still emerging. He made strong political connections, which helped him secure key infrastructure projects. He expanded in various sectors like Adani Cement, Power, logistics, defence, mining, infrastructure, etc. Adani also worked on acquiring global assets, like in Australia and Sri Lanka.

But recently Gautam Adani has been in the spotlight for his strong political bonds and stock market manipulations. Let us see what happened and why it happened.

Adani Power Share Price Fluctuation 

Adani Power had received a 25-year power supply contract agreement from Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited, and due to its impact on company share prices, saw a hike of 3% on 31^st Oct 2024, considering the long-term revenue of the company. But after a few weeks, Adani Power’s share price saw a dip of around 14% in Dec 2024.

Now in financial year 2025 Q1, Adani Power recorded a decline of around 55% over the years, which amounts to 3913 crore rupees, but there has also been a spike in revenue from operations that is around 14,956 crore rupees. Adani Power has also faced some issues from Bangladesh, as the Bangladeshi government has accused Adani Power of breaching the contract by withholding tax profit that could save the Bangladeshi government a sum of around $28.6 million. The Bangladeshi government is also seeking to renegotiate the power supply deal with Adani Power due to their higher cost compared to other coal power generators. Since the company is also facing the challenges regarding fraud and bribery, which is affecting its market value.Other than Adani Power, Adani Group experienced a notable fluctuation in other sectors as well. The market movement can be seen based on the day. Some shares moved up while others led to some decline in profits. Recently a US based firm called Hindenberg Research has been shutdown causing a rise in Adani share prices. But due to the allegations of financial misconduct and bribery charges against Gautam Adani, the market is not stable for the Adani Group, and hence these facts should also be considered while making any investment decision.