How Gautam Adani Emerged as the World’s 3rd Richest Man

September 6, 2022

Last Updated date: September 7, 2022

How Gautam Adani Becomes World’s Third Richest Man – everyone wants to know the answer. Recently, the 60-year-old business entrepreneur ranks third on the list, behind Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, with a net worth of $137 billion. While Jeff Bezos, the creator and CEO of Amazon, has a total net worth of $153 billion, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has a total net worth of $251 billion.

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Gautam Adani has eclipsed Bernard Arnault, a co-founder of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, a leader in luxury fashion and a French business titan. This is the first time an Asian has appeared among the top three richest persons in the world. Other wealthy Asians, like Chinese-born Jack Ma of the Alibaba Group and Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani, have not attained this level of wealth.

Who is Gautam Adani?

Gautam Adani is a businessman who is not particularly well-known in the West. The Adani Group was established in 1988 by this 60-year-old guy as a commodity trading company. His net worth increased from less than $6 billion in March 2020 to close to $80 billion in the middle of 2021, before suffering some turbulence and skyrocketing once again in recent months to reach $130 billion.

He surpassed Ambani to become the richest person in Asia at the start of the year. Adani has expanded his company by borrowing money to buy businesses. The $240 billion Adani company has expanded beyond mining, ports, and power plants to include airports, data centers, and defense. It has 12 commercial ports, is involved in coal, electricity, and renewable energy, and just last week made a hostile bid for New Delhi Television, a major player in the Indian media.

The Adani group recently joined the cement industry by purchasing Holcim, an Indian cement maker, and is also attempting to establish an aluminum factory.

Adani, who was born in 1962 in Ahmedabad, western India, is one of seven children who were raised by a humble textile merchant father. At the age of 16, this self-made guy began working at the diamond dealer Mahendra Brothers where he was in charge of sorting the priceless stones.

He joined his brother at a plastics company in the early 1980s and swiftly assumed control of the operations. With the invention of new plastics like PVC, the company began to expand quickly. He expanded the business of what would later become Adani Enterprises into the metals and textile industries in the early 1990s.

The operation of the port of Mundra, on the Arabian Sea, which became the nation’s first commercial port, gave the Adani family a new dimension in 1995. Since then, Adani has expanded its operations in the electricity, coal, and renewable energy sectors by purchasing ports and airports.

Since the Adani Group completed the majority of its acquisitions using debt, the question of whether it is not more unstable than it appears torments financial circles.

“The business fundamentals of the graded firms (of the Adani group), such as Adani Ports, are fairly sound. The port industry is producing strong cash flows. Some of the group’s acquisitions are likely where the risk could be found. Recent acquisitions that we have seen have been partially supported by debt, which reduces the headroom “Senior director of S&P Global Ratings Abhishek Dangra issued a warning.

Gautam Adani Net Worth as of 2022

Gautam Adani, a multibillionaire industrialist, is now the third richest person in the world. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Gautam Adani net worth is $137 billion as of August 2022. On the list of billionaires, the 60-year-old millionaire stands behind Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.

The top three wealthiest billionaires in the world have never included an Asian before. In history, Asian billionaires like Jack Ma, Mukesh Ambani, and others have not to such heights.

These are the 10 richest people in the world till August 30, 2022.

Elon Musk — $251 billion
Jeff Bezos — $153 billion
Gautam Adani — $137 billion
Bernard Arnault — $136 billion
Bill Gates — $117 billion
Warren Buffett — $100 billion
Larry Page — $93.3 billion
Sergey Brin — $95.8 billion
Steve Ballmer — $93.7 billion
Larry Ellison — $93.3 billion

Gautam Adani Career and Early Life

Gautam Adani was born in a Bania family on June 24, 1962, to Shantilal and Shanta Adani in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. His seven siblings total. His relatives worked in the textile industry. He had ambition and tenacity when he was a small child. He didn’t care much about studies and left school as a teenager. Later, he entered Gujarat University, but he did not stay to finish his studies there. He was interested in business, but he had no desire to work for his father’s textile company.

When he was 18 years old, his desire to succeed in business led him to relocate from Ahmedabad to Mumbai. The young man had only a few hundred rupees, but he was determined to succeed. He started out as a diamond sorter for Mahindra Brothers and after a few years started his own diamond brokerage company. He was a billionaire by the age of 20 thanks to the success of his business. At this point, Gautam Adani’s older brother had just bought a plastic plant in Ahmedabad and requested Gautam’s assistance in running it.

Adani started working with his brother after returning to Ahmedabad. He quickly started trading in commodities by importing Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), a crucial raw material for making plastic. He visited South Korea and struck a deal to buy PVC.

He founded Adani Exports Limited in 1988, now known as the Adani Enterprises Ltd. The business first dealt in agricultural products and power before gradually growing. Adani’s business was strengthened by the economic and liberalization reforms of 1991, which also saw a surge in sales and earnings for his business. The favorable business climate made it possible for Adani to grow his business quickly.

The Gujarati government issued an invitation to private businesses to manage the Mundra Port in 1993, and Adani was awarded the contract in 1995. The Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited afterwards took over the operation that had originally been carried out by Mundra Port & Special Economic Zone Ltd. Today, it is the largest private multi-port operator in India.

Adani Power Limited, a division of the Adani Group that operates in the power sector, was founded in 1996 by Gautam Adani. The firm is both the largest private energy producer and solar energy producer in India. Gujarat’s Ahmedabad is home to the Adani Group, a worldwide business with Indian roots. It was established by Gautam Adani in 1988 as a commodity trading corporation, with Adani Enterprises Limited as its centerpiece.

Adani Ports: One of the greenest port operations in the world, that has handled 300 million tonnes of cargo over its network of 12 ports, well in advance of the end of the year.

Adani Total Gas: In Ahmedabad, Gujarat, it just opened its first EV charging station at ATGL’s CNG station in Maninagar, marking the company’s entry into the infrastructure market for electric mobility.

Adani Enterprises: AEL has declared that it will invest more than 55,000 crores in new energy, airports, and roads over the coming years. Over the next three years, the corporation will invest at least Rs 14,000 crore in its airport business line.

ADANI Group is competing to purchase NDTV shares

On August 23, the Adani Group of Companies stated that it would indirectly purchase a 29.18% share in NDTV (New Delhi Television Limited), outlining plans for an upcoming open offer for a 26% further stake in accordance with Indian regulations.

NDTV stated in a statement that this “was accomplished without any participation from, communication with, or consent of the NDTV founders” after the announcement.

Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy, NDTV’s promoters, were warned by the stock exchanges that they are temporarily prohibited from accessing securities transactions by the Securities and Exchange Bureau of India until November 26, 2022. Adani Group would therefore need the market regulator’s permission to purchase a stake in the news channel.

Adani Enterprises stated in a regulatory filing to the stock exchanges on August 26, 2022, that previous approval from SEBI is not necessary for the allocation of the channel’s shares to its subsidiary Vishvapradhan Commercial.

One of the few media organizations that criticizes the policies of the current administration is NDTV.