New York: Indian businessman Gautam Adani became the world’s third-richest person on Tuesday by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the first time an Asian has been among the top three. His net worth more than doubled last year to $137.4 billion, according to his Bloomberg news report, and he moved up 20 places in the index to rank just behind Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
Gautam Adani has overtaken fresh business tycoon Bernard Arnault, co-founder of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, a global leader in luxury fashion.In the Bloomberg Billionaires Index list 2022, Tesla chief Elon Musk has a net worth of $251 billion, while Amazon founder and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has a total worth of $153 billion. This is the first time an Asian has ranked among the top three wealthiest people in the world, according to a Bloomberg report.
Gautam Adani is co-founder of Adani Group, the country’s largest port operator. Gautam Adani’s Adani Group is also said to be India’s largest coal trader. His $5.3 billion earnings were reported by Adani Enterprises on March 31, 2021, according to Bloomberg profile of Asia’s Richest Man Highlights.
Adani, 60, made his fortune in ports and commodity trading and now runs India’s third-largest conglomerate, with everything from coal mining and cooking oil to airports and news media. The surge in his net worth reflects the stratospheric rise in the market capitalization of his listed companies as investors support aggressive expansion of his Adani Group’s old and new businesses. His stake in flagship Adani Enterprises, which the billionaire owns 75% of him, has surged more than 2,400% since March 2020, doubling his value in the past six months.
A surge in shares of other group companies including Adani Transmissions, Adani Power, Adani Port and Adani Green Energy has pushed Adani past fellow Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani.Ahmedabad in western Gujarat Born into a middle-class family in the city, Adani dropped out of college to work briefly in the diamond industry before starting an export business in 1988.
In 1995, he won a contract to build and operate a commercial shipping port in Mundra, Gujarat. The port has since grown to become India’s largest port. At the same time, Adani expanded into thermal power generation and coal mining in India and abroad. In recent years, the conglomerate has expanded into petrochemicals, cement, data centers and copper smelting, in addition to establishing renewable energy operations with ambitious goals.
Recent Indian news media investments and a bid for 5G airwaves this year have sparked speculation that the billionaire empire could soon have an impact on a sector dominated by Ambani’s Reliance Industries. . But Adani’s rapid expansion into capital-intensive businesses has sounded alarm bells, with Fitch Group’s Creditsights warning last week that the group was “extremely over-leveraged.”
“In a worst-case scenario, an overly ambitious debt-funded growth plan could eventually end up in a massive debt trap, leading to worst-case scenarios and defaults,” said a credit market research firm. said in a note. Gautam Adani made headlines last week with the announcement that Adani’s company will acquire his 29% stake in NDTV, one of India’s top news networks. However, the deal is subject to market regulator SEBI approval, according to the network. – AFP
