(Aug 22): Billionaire Gautam Adani plans to appoint auditors from a top global firm and hire a chief executive officer for his family offices to bring a level of disclosure often associated with listed companies, people familiar with the matter said.

The founders of the mining-to-media conglomerate are talking to two of the big six accounting firms to audit the family offices’ accounts, said people familiar with the discussions who did not want to be identified as the talks are private.

The moves aim to bring transparency in how the wealth of Asia’s second-richest person, valued at US$105.4 billion (RM461.5 billion), is managed and underscores the lessons from last year’s short seller attack. The first-generation entrepreneur faced intense scrutiny and criticism from Hindenburg Research LLC on multiple issues, including the opacity in how the group operates and controls its listed entities.

Hiring is underway for a team of about five people, led by a CEO and a chief investment officer, that will initially report to group chief financial officer Jugeshinder Singh and eventually to the billionaire-founder, the people said.

Adani family’s two wealth offices were until now run informally with the help of group firms’ CFOs. An Adani Group representative did not offer any immediate comments.

While getting professionals to lead the wealth offices is not uncommon especially for billionaires who are still actively running their businesses, efforts to appoint a global audit firm and bolster disclosures is a rather rare initiative and in sharp contrast to most of the family offices, where discretion and secrecy is preferred.

This shows that Adani is looking for an image makeover after a tumultuous period last year. Increased transparency will burnish the conglomerate’s credentials too as it steadily increases its global footprint and woos global investors.

The recast family office management will also oversee the founders’ shareholding across the listed Adani Group firms, besides preparing financial reports for the additional disclosures the family wants to make, the people said.

While some of the professional managers may be hired next month, the recast family office will be fully operational from April 2025. The structure may undergo changes in the meantime, the people said.

Adani’s empire has been growing at a breakneck pace in the past five years, often by piling on more debt. This rapid pace of growth — and the runaway rally in his firms’ shares — came under scathing spotlight after Hindenburg made allegations of wide-ranging corporate malfeasance in January 2023.

The US short seller had also criticized the Adani family for using a complicated web of offshore entities to control a larger stake in their listed businesses than disclosed to exchanges.

Despite Adani Group denying these accusations, short seller’s withering report lopped off more than US$150 billion from Adani companies’ market value at one point last year and pushed the founders into damage control mode for months.

After executing operational fixes — paring debt, reining in costs and luring investors like GQG Partners Inc — that helped the Adani Group claw back most of the lost ground, the founders have now moved to addressing deeper questions such as laying down a succession plan and bringing professionals to manage their family offices.

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