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Adani, world's 3rd richest, now only behind Musk, Bezos | 5 things to know
Adani is a first-generation entrepreneur and the Adani Group comprises of 7 publicly listed entities with businesses spanning energy, ports and logistics, mining and resources, gas, defence and aerospace and airports.
India's business tycoon Gautam Adani has become the world's third-richest person surpassing France’s Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world's largest maker of luxury goods, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. It is the first time an Asian person has broken into the top three of the billionaires index. The fortunes of Adani have skyrocketed in recent years, adding $60.9 billion to his net worth in 2022 alone, five times more than anyone else. Swiss entrepreneur Guillaume Pousaz is the second biggest gainer with $11.7 billion addition to his net worth this year.
5 things you need to know about Gautan Adani
With $137 billion net worth, Adani is now only behind Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Amazon Inc. founder Jeff Bezos whose current net worth is at $251 billion and $153 billion, respectively. Both Musk's and Bezos's fortunes have witnessed a decline this year. While Musk's net worth dropped by nearly $19 billion, Bezos's net worth dropped by $39 billion.
The 60-year-old billionaire is a college dropout who first tried his luck as a diamond trader before turning to coal. In the past few years, Adani has expanded his coal-to-ports conglomerate and ventured into data centers, cement, media and alumina.
His latest takeover bid of popular New Delhi Television (NDTV) has garnered much attention as the company founders said the action was taken without their consent.
Adani now owns India’s largest private-sector port and airport operator, city-gas distributor and coal miner. His venture into coal has been marred with controversy as the group's Carmichael mine in Australia has been criticized by environmentalists.
There have also been concerns over the debt-equity ratio as Adani expands his empire to one of the world’s largest conglomerates. Adani’s deals spree has been predominantly funded with debt and his empire is “deeply over-leveraged,” CreditSights said in a report this month.
