Feb 3, 2023
By: Katya Naidu
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of being the second richest man in the world. Last year, Gautam Adani, held the coveted position of being the second richest man in the world, albeit briefly. Now of course he is the second richest man in India – losing the crown he gained last year as India’s and Asia’s richest man from Reliance Industries’ chairman Mukesh Ambani.
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Adani’s wealth now stands at $61.3 billion according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. This is way below Mukesh Ambani’s $80.3 billion. Adani’s rank slipped to 21, as he crashed out of the top 20 club within days of crashing out of the top 10 club. Before the stock rout, he was the world’s third richest man.
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All seven Adani stocks have been on a freefall since a US-based research firm released a report named ‘How the world's 3rd richest man is pulling the largest con in corporate history’ on January 24. It alleged that the group engaged in "brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud”.
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The group with seven companies including Adani Enterprises, Adani Transmission, Adani Green, Adani Total Gas, Adani Power lost as much as ₹11 lakh crore in market cap.
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Gautam Adani holds the largest stake in his companies, crashing his personal wealth too. He owns close to 75 percent of Adani Enterprises, Adani Transmission and Adani Power. He also owns more 60 percent of Adani Green and Adani Ports, and more than one-third of Adani Total Gas, according to Bloomberg.
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Adani who had once raced past Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and even Bill Gates to be amongst the world’s richest – swiftly fell in rankings. He is now behind Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Koch family members of the Kansas-based conglomerate; and even the many entrants of the Walmant’s Walton family.
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At his peak which was in September 2022, Adani’s wealth was at $150 billion – which has more than halved since then. In fact, his wealth is now back to what it was in 2021 – having wiped out 2022’s gains.
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Adani — whose wealth swelled exponentially since the pandemic— is still much ahead of his pre-pandemic networth which was under $10 billion. In 2014, his networth was at $5.3 billion and had maintained the trajectory till the end of 2019. In the last three years, his wealth multiplied as he acquired companies, entered new sectors and chalked out ambitious business plans.
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Adani has been on an acquisition spree in the last few years. Not only did he acquire Haifa port of Israel; and cement majors like Ambuja and ACC; he also made a foothold in the infrastructure space by acquiring airports, power companies and even FMCG brands like Kohinoor.
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Adani is a college dropout who started trading in diamonds even as he pursued his education. He established his flagship company Adani Enterprises in 1988 to import and export commodities and built a port in Mundra, which started operations in 2001.
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