Gautam Adani is now the third richest person in the world, only behind Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos

• Gautam Adani’s total wealth stood at $137 billion, making him the third richest person in the world.
• Adani has added $61 billion to his wealth since the beginning of 2022, making him the top gainer this year by a huge margin.
• The gap between Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani – India’s top two richest people – has also increased to $45 billion.

Gautam Adani, the richest person in Asia, is now the third richest person in the world, only behind Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Adani achieved this feat for the first time by beating French business magnate Bernard Arnault, the co-founder of luxury brand Louis Vuitton.

According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Gautam Adani’s wealth stood at $137 billion, inching closer to Jeff Bezos whose wealth stands at $153 billion. However, Adani is still $114 billion away from Elon Musk, whose wealth stands at $251 billion.

Adani also is the biggest gainer in 2022, adding $61 billion to his wealth. In comparison, Musk lost $19 billion while Bezos lost $39 billion, while Mukesh Ambani added $2 billion in the same period.

The gap between Adani and Ambani continues to widen. After competing neck-to-neck with each other for several months, Adani has sprinted too far ahead of Ambani, whose wealth stands at $92 billion.

After the recent decline in Reliance Industries’ market cap, Ambani is now out of the top 10 billionaires list as well.

"Deeply overleveraged" concerns notwithstanding

Just last week, a CreditSights report raised a red flag on the group’s extensive debt and that triggered a massive ₹94,000 crore fall in the seven listed stocks of the group.

The report said that the group’s chosen path of inorganic growth via acquisitions is over-ambitious and can spiral into a ‘massive debt trap’. In the worst case, it could lead to the default of one or two companies in the group, the report forecasted.

The Adani group recently received an approval for an open offer for two cement companies that it acquired in May, for $10.5 billion. It also acquired Israel’s Haifa port for $1.18 billion.

The equity infusions into the group are few and far between, but “these pale in comparison to the total capex needs of the concerned entity”, the report says. The agency said it does not draw any comfort from the personal wealth that the group chairman holds.

Adani increased his wealth by nearly 23x since the first Covid lockdown

In trying to understand Adani’s rise to the top, it’s essential to know where he was two years ago.

According to data from Bloomberg, Adani’s total wealth stood at $6 billion on the day India entered a nationwide lockdown due to the Covid pandemic.

Since then, Adani has increased his wealth by nearly 23 times – essentially, if you had invested ₹1 lakh in Adani on March 24, 2020, today your investment would be worth ₹23 lakh.

In comparison, Mukesh Ambani’s wealth stood at $32.6 billion in March, 2020. It has now increased to $92 billion, growing by just 3x.

Here’s where the seven Adani Group companies listed on the stock exchanges stand:


Source: NSE, as on August 29, 2022

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