Gautam Adani, the chairperson of Adani Group, has become the richest person in India, according to IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2022 that was released on Wednesday, September 21. Gautam Adani has surged ahead to the top spot, beating other top billionaires, the list showed on the day.
The 60-year-old chairperson of the Adani Group has defeated all his contemporaries and moved to the top spot in the Hurun India rich list with a wealth of Rs 10,94,400 crore. In the last one year, Adani’s wealth more than doubled at 116 per cent, fuelled by acquisitions and organic growth of his business. In absolute terms, Gautam Adani added Rs 5,88,500 crore to his wealth portfolio in the last one year. In the last five years, the first-generation entrepreneur’s wealth has increased by 1,440 per cent, Hurun India said in its report.
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On a daily basis, Gautam Adani added Rs 1,612 crore in 2021, the list revealed.
“The combined market value of the Adani group’s seven publicly traded companies, all of which carry the industrialist’s name, has increased significantly in the past few years. The mining-to-energy conglomerate has promised to invest $70 billion in green energy and become the world’s largest renewables producer,” read the report.
In the last five years, Gautam Adani moved up from the second rank to secure the first position in India’s rich list. “When compared over five years, some of the billionaires have scaled up significantly and surged ahead as their companies created wealth at an unprecedented speed. Gautam Adani and his brother are the most obvious, as they moved up in ranking. Gautam moved up from the 8th rank in 2018 to the number one spot when his wealth increased 15.4 times, while his brother Vinod moved up from the 49th spot to the sixth ranking,” said Hurun India.
As per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Adani has secured the top spot with a real time wealth of $150 billion, ranking just after Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Last week, Adani surpassed Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to climb up to the spot.
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In the calendar year 2022, Adani has added over $70 billion to his fortune, only one among the world’s 10 wealthiest people to have seen his net worth increase this year. He became a centibillionaire in April and surpassed Microsoft Corp’s Bill Gates as the world’s fourth-richest person last month.
Gautam Adani’s businesses in India focus on several different sectors — from airports to green energy, he has it all. The business mogul has recently been concentrating on alternative energy business, at a time when the government is promoting green energy in the country.
The Adani Group has also pledged its entire stake worth $13 billion in Ambuja Cements and ACC, days after completing its $6.5 billion acquisition of the two companies. According to regulatory updates on Tuesday, billionaire Gautam Adani-led group has encumbered its 63.15 per cent stake in Ambuja Cements and 56.7 per cent stake in ACC (of which 50 per cent is held by Ambuja) to the Hong Kong Branch of Deutsche Bank AG.
