Success Story of Gautam Adani: World’s 2nd Richest Man

Mr. Adani, who was up in a middle-class family in the western state of Gujarat’s metropolis of Ahmedabad, dropped out of college to work in the diamond trade before launching his export company in 1988.

He was awarded a contract in 1995 to construct and run a commercial shipping port in Gujarat’s Mundra, which later expanded to become India’s largest port. Adani expanded at the same time into coal mining and thermal power generation in India and abroad. The firm recently established an ambitious renewable energy sector and forayed into petrochemicals, cement, data centers, and copper refining.

On the Forbes real-time billionaire tracker, Indian businessman Gautam Adani momentarily overtook the second richest person in the world on September 16, 2022, weeks after becoming the first Asian to enter the top three. Forbes reports that the self-made billionaire’s net worth increased $4 billion overnight to $154 billion, placing him ahead of Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Bernard Arnault of LVMH. Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, maintained a commanding lead with a net worth of more than $270 billion.

In May 2021, Mr. Arnault, who occasionally held the top rank, and Mr. Gautam Adani alternated holding the second spot throughout the day as the share values of their respective firms changed. The 60-year-old Mr. Adani built his fortune in ports and commodities trading and now runs the second-largest conglomerate in India, with businesses that include edible oil production, coal mining, airports, and the news media.

His ballooning net worth reflects a stratospheric rise in the market capitalization of his publicly listed companies as investors back the Adani Group’s aggressive expansion of old and new businesses. Shares of the leading Adani Enterprises, which the billionaire controls 75%, have increased in value by two and a half since March 2020, or more than 2,700%.

This year, Adani outperformed fellow Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani thanks to stock price increases at other companies like Adani Transmission, Adani Power, Adani Ports, and Adani Green Energy.

AMG Media Network Limited, an arm or subsidiary of Adani enterprises, unleashed a report on August 23, 2022, that it was acquiring 29.18% of NDTV, which makes it the majority shareholder. 

Moreover, Gautam Adani’s Group acquires some major cement players, including Ambuja Cement and ACC, which makes Adani’s Group the second largest Cement player in India. For more information, click here.