Rajiv Jain was pretty pleased with himself. It was March last year, and GQG Partners, chaired by the star stock picker, had made a near-$3 billion bet on Adani Group, the Indian conglomerate that is spread across everything from mining to ports, airports and power stations.

It was a deeply contrarian move. The company, founded by billionaire businessman Gautam Adani as a commodities trading firm in 1988, had been the target of serious accusations from Hindenburg Research, a short-seller that accused it of using offshore tax havens and high debts.