Gautam Adani has surpassed France’s Bernard Arnault in the ranking, trailing only Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos of the United States.
Only a few years ago, few people outside of India had heard of Gautam Adani. Now, the Indian businessman, a college dropout who started out as a diamond trader before switching to coal, is the world’s third wealthiest person.
It’s the first time an Asian has cracked the top three of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index; fellow Indian Mukesh Ambani and China’s Jack Ma never got there. With a fortune of $137.4 billion, Mr Adani has surpassed France’s Bernard Arnault and now trails only Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos of the United States in the ranking.
Mr. Adani, 60, has spent the last few years expanding his coal-to-ports conglomerate, branching out into industries ranging from data centres to cement, media, and alumina. The group now owns India’s largest private-sector port and airport operator, as well as the country’s largest city-gas distributor and coal miner. While environmentalists have criticised its Carmichael mine in Australia, it pledged in November to invest $70 billion in green energy to become the world’s largest renewable-energy producer.
Concerns have grown as his empire has grown to become one of the world’s largest conglomerates, fueling the remarkable wealth gains. Mr. Adani’s acquisition spree has been primarily funded by debt, and his empire is “deeply over-leveraged,” according to CreditSights in a report this month.
Some lawmakers and market observers have also expressed concern about Adani Group companies’ opaque shareholder structures and a lack of analyst coverage. Nonetheless, the tycoon’s shares have soared – some by more than 1,000% since 2020, with valuations reaching 750 times earnings – as he has focused on areas that Prime Minister Narendra Modi believes are critical to India’s long-term goals.
The shift to green energy and infrastructure has attracted investments from firms such as Warburg Pincus and TotalEnergies SE, propelling Mr Adani into the ranks previously held by US tech titans. The recent surge in coal prices has accelerated his rise.
Overall, Mr. Adani has increased his fortune by $60.9 billion in 2022 alone, five times more than anyone else. He surpassed Mr Ambani as the richest Asian in February, became a billionaire in April, and last month surpassed Microsoft Corp’s Bill Gates as the world’s fourth-richest person.
Mr. Adani was able to surpass some of the world’s wealthiest US billionaires, in part because they have recently increased their philanthropy. Gates announced in July that he would be transferring $20 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, while Warren Buffett has already given the charity more than $35 billion.
In 2010, the two, along with Gates’ ex-wife Melinda French Gates, launched the Giving Pledge initiative, vowing to give away the majority of their fortunes during their lifetimes. The billions of dollars they have spent on philanthropy have pushed them down the Bloomberg wealth ranking. Gates is now ranked fifth, and Buffett is ranked sixth.
Mr. Adani has also increased his charitable contributions. To commemorate his 60th birthday, he pledged in June to donate $7.7 billion to charitable causes.
Prasanta Patnaik