Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani Group, has become the richest Asian, worth $88.5 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaire Index on Tuesday, and the 10th richest person in the world. Adani, who has interests ranging from port and energy to airports, has managed to topple Reliance Industries (RIL) Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani, net worth $87.9 billion as per the Bloomberg ranking of top billionaires in the world.
Worth mentioning here is that Ambani was holding the top position on India’s rich list for the last 14 years, and he was dethroned by Sun Pharma’s top boss Dilip Shangavi in 2015 for a brief period but then moved back into first place.
With around $12 billion surge in his personal fortune, Adani, 59, is the world’s biggest wealth-gainer this year. Adani closed the wealth gap with Ambani rapidly amid the rising share value of his group companies. Further, some of the entities listed stocks have jumped over 600 per cent in the past two years, and Adani’s focus on renewable energy has paid off handsomely in the past year.
Adani’s wealth has zoomed by $12 billion in the past year, and Ambani, by contrast, is down by around $2.07 billion during the same period.
“The Adani Group has spotted and entered all the happening sectors at the right time, which has appealed to a select band of foreign portfolio investors,” Deepak Jasani, head of retail research at Mumbai-based brokerage HDFC Securities Ltd, told Bloomberg.
At present, Adani owns 12 ports and plans to be the world’s biggest ports operator by 2030, and he has emerged as India’s infrastructure king. The Ahmedabad-based ports-to-energy conglomerate’s top boss has announced plans to expand the green energy capacity almost eightfold by 2025.
Last year, Adani Green agreed to acquire Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp-backed SB Energy Holdings Limited for an enterprise value of $3.5 billion. In the last three years, Adani has gained control of seven airports and almost 25 per cent of the passengers going in and out of the country travel through an Adani airport.
Adani Green and Adani Total Gas Ltd stocks have soared over 1,000 per cent since the beginning of 2020. Adani Enterprises has surged more than 730 per cent, Adani Transmission over 500 per cent over this tenure.
Meanwhile, the tycoon’s Adani Wilmar IPO lists on Tuesday (February 8) and this should give the billionaire’s fortunes a further lift.
