Gautam Adani to hire top auditors and CEO for revamp of family offices

Billionaire Gautam Adani wants to create a level of transparency in his family offices that one associates with listed firms. For this, he plans to appoint a chief executive officer and auditors from a leading global company.

So far, the two wealth offices of the family were being informally operated with the aid of group CFOs, and the latest decision has been prompted by the attack of the American short seller Hindenburg Research last year. On January 24, 2023, Hindenburg had published a report accusing the Adani Group of financial malpractices and stock manipulation.

The report had led to a steep fall in the stock prices of the Adani Group companies, to as much as 83 per cent in certain cases. In all, the Hindenburg report is said to have slashed the Adani Group’s market value by more than $150 billion.

Gautam Adani, a first-generation entrepreneur who is Asia’s second-richest person and valued at $105.4 billion, is currently in discussions with two of the biggest accounting firms in the world to audit the accounts of his family offices. The step is aimed at ensuring transparency in how money is generated and managed by the Adani conglomerate, whose businesses include ports, airports, special economic zones (SEZ), renewable energy, roads and construction, cement, media and much more.

While roping in professionals to lead wealth offices is common among billionaire entrepreneurs, the process of designating a global audit firm is an unusual one, In fact, the action is contradictory to what family businesses normally do, considering discretion is very important in such businesses.

Currently, hiring is on for a team of around five to be led by a CEO and a chief investment officer. The team will report to Group Chief Financial Officer Jugeshinder Singh and eventually to Gautam Adani. The group may hire a few professional managers by next month, sources said, and the revamped family office will be ready to operate by April 2025.