Indian billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani, who is the chairman and founder of the Adani Group, has had the biggest wealth surge in the world, beating the likes of American business tycoons Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Adani has added more billions to his wealth than anyone else in the world this year on the back of strong investor sentiment around the impressive growth of his business ventures.
The net worth of Adani stands at $50 billion, a staggering rise of $16.2 billion in the past one year. This surge has made him the year’s biggest wealth gainer. The publicly traded shares of all Adani group stocks, except one, have risen at least 50 per cent this year.
The increase in Adani’s wealth outshines the $8.1 billion added by another Indian businessman and the richest person in Asia, Mukesh Ambani. It also illustrates the growing influence of the first-generation billionaire, who has attracted investment from Total SA to Warburg Pincus. The Adani Group is growing at a breakneck pace, adding ports, airports, data centres and coal mines in India, while steadfastly going ahead with his controversial Carmichael coal project in Australia.
According to Sunil Chandiramani, founder and chief executive officer at Nyka Advisory Services, Adani has been constantly augmenting his business in areas that are robust enough to withstand market cycles. “Now with the entry in data centres, the Group has demonstrated its willingness to take the plunge into the technology sector,” he said.
Adani Enterprises Ltd. signed an agreement last month to develop 1 gigawatt of data center capacity in India.
The Adani Group seems to have insulated itself from the economic fallout out of the coronavirus-induced lockdown. At a time when organisations are struggling on their path to recovery, companies within the Adani conglomerate have registered staggering growth. The shares of Adani Total Gas Ltd. has jumped 96 per cent this year while the flagship Adani Enterprises have leapt 90 per cent. Adani Transmission Ltd. is up 79%. Adani Power Ltd. and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zones Ltd. have added more than 52% this year. Adani Green Energy Ltd., which rose over 500% last year, is up 12% so far.
