Last week, industrialist and Adani Group's Chairperson Gautam Adani became the second richest man in the world, led by a sharp rally in the Adani Group stocks. Adani overtook Amazon's Jeff Bezos to secure the second richest spot, and now trails Tesla's Elon Musk, who remains the world's wealthiest man, as per Bloomberg Billionaire index.
He became a centibillionaire in April and surpassed Microsoft Corp.’s Bill Gates as the world’s fourth-richest person last month. Gautam Adani and family grew their wealth 15.4 times in 5 years.
Gautam Adani, 60, is the founder of conglomerate Adani Group, the largest port operator in India. The group's interests span infrastructure, commodities, power generation and transmission and real estate. He has surged to prominence this year, as an eye-catching leap in his fortune made him one of the richest people on the planet in a matter of months.
Eight firms controlled by Adani’s ports-to-power conglomerate, including recent cement acquisitions, have contributed more than a fifth of the 109-member MSCI India Index’s surge since end-June, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
In May 2022, he made a big entry into cement when he won the race to acquire Swiss giant Holcim's cement business in India for $10.5 billion. Adani also wants to be the world's largest producer of green energy and has said he will invest upto $70 billion on renewable energy projects.
The Top 10 in the IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2022 come from diverse sectors, Gautam Adani - the richest, has interests in power, port, renewables and energy. Mukesh Ambani, who is in the second rank is in telecom and petrochemicals. Cyrus Poonawalla, who is at the third spot is the vaccine king of the world. Then there are pharma, retail, and financial services in the top 10.
