According to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, billionaire Gautam Adani has surpassed Chinese tycoon Zhong Shanshan to become the second-richest Asian, as the stock prices of his listed companies have soared.
Zhong, of China, was the wealthiest Asian until February, when he was dethroned by Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man and chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd. While Ambani lost $175.5 million this year, Adani’s wealth increased by $32.7 billion to $66.5 billion, compared to $63.6 billion for Zhong. Ambani’s total wealth has risen to $76.5 billion, making him the world’s 13th richest person, ahead of Adani, who is 14th.
Ambani had been ranked first in Asia’s wealthiest people for the previous two years.
Following the stock listings of Nongfu Spring mineral water and pharma company Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise, which tapped into the demand for Covid-19 test kits last year, Zhong is China’s richest man, with a net worth of $63.6 billion.
The rise in the share prices of Adani Green, Adani Enterprises, Adani Gas, and Adani Transmission has fueled Adani’s wealth growth at breakneck speed. Adani Total Gas shares have increased by more than 12 times in the last year, while Adani Enterprises and Adani Transmission have increased by more than eight and six times, respectively.
During this time, Adani Green Energy and Adani Power have grown fourfold and nearly tripled, respectively, while Adani Ports has more than doubled.
Gautam Adani began his career as a commodity trader and now owns businesses in a variety of industries, including ports, airports, energy, resources, logistics, agribusiness, real estate, financial services, gas distribution, and defence.
Adani Green Energy announced on Wednesday that it will purchase SoftBank’s Indian renewable energy company SB Energy’s 5 gigawatt renewable power portfolio for $3.5 billion.
According to the company, this is the largest acquisition in India’s renewable energy sector.
