NEW DELHI: Gautam Adani has now become the first Asian to become the third-richest person in the world, according to the latest Bloomberg Billionaires data. With a net worth of USD 137 billion, the 60-year-old chief of the port-to-Power conglomerate overtook Bernard Arnault, the French luxury retail king and co-founder of LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SE.
Adani, who is in an expansion mode and has made a number of acquisitions in recent times, now trails behind Tesla’s Elon Musk and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos on the coveted list. Adani’s rise in the billionaire’s list in the last few years has been awe-inspiring for fellow billionaires. He has added a whopping USD 60.9 billion to his fortune in 2022 alone, more than any other person on the list.
Except Adani Ports and SEZ (14%), the other six Adani Group listed stocks have risen between 80-308% in 2022 and this is where the bulk of his wealth comes from. Except for his FMCG unit Adani-Wilmar, Gautam Adani holds the majority stake in all his listed entities.
After a long neck and neck war, he first overtook RIL chief and rival billionaire Mukesh Ambani as the richest Asian and Indian in February, entered the USD 100-billion dollar club in April and surpassed Microsoft Corp.’s Bill Gates as the world’s fourth-richest person last month. Adani’s notional wealth is now about USD 45 more than Ambani.
Currently, Adani shares are surging at record pace as the Group is venturing into new businesses: from cement to telecom to media. It is also making make acquisitions on day-to-day basis for expanding its existing businesses. These agressive expansions, however, has raised some concerns as they mostly are debt funded.