Adani becomes the world’s third richest person; everything you need to know
Few people outside of India had heard of Gautam Adani only a few years ago.
The Indian businessman, a college dropout who started as a diamond trader before switching to coal, is the world’s third wealthiest person.
It’s the first time an Asian has cracked the top three of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index; fellow Indian Mukesh Ambani and China’s Jack Ma never got there. Adani has surpassed France’s Bernard Arnault in the ranking, trailing only Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos of the United States.
Adani, 60, has spent the last few years diversifying his coal-to-ports conglomerate into industries ranging from data centers to cement, media, and alumina. The group now owns India’s largest private-sector port and airport operator, the country’s largest city-gas distributor, and coal miner. While environmentalists have criticized its Carmichael mine in Australia. It pledged to invest $70 billion in green energy to become the world’s largest renewable-energy producer in November.
Concerns have grown as his empire has become one of the world’s largest conglomerates, fueling the remarkable wealth gains. Adani’s acquisition spree has been primarily fund by debt. And his empire is “deeply over-leverage,” according to CreditSights’s report this month.
Some lawmakers and market observers have also expressed concern about Adani Group companies’ opaque shareholder structures and a lack of analyst coverage. Nonetheless, the tycoon’s shares have soared – some by more than 1,000% since 2020, with valuations reaching 750 times earnings. As he has focused on areas that Prime Minister Narendra Modi believes are critical to India’s long-term goals.
Adani Enterprises Ltd., the group’s flagship, rose 1.7% to a record close on Tuesday.
The shift to green energy and infrastructure has attracted investments from firms such as Warburg Pincus and TotalEnergies SE, propelling Adani into the ranks previously held by US tech titans. The recent surge in coal prices has accelerated his rise.
