Gautam Adani has retaken the tag of richest person in Asia after a surge in stock price of the listed companies in his apples-to-airport conglomerate helped him overtake Reliance Industries head Mukesh Ambani.
Adani with a net worth of USD 111 billion is now ranked as the 11th richest in the world, ahead of Ambani whose USD 109 billion wealth placed him at No. 12, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Shares of all Adani Group companies surged on Friday by up to 14 per cent after US brokerage Jefferies put a bullish view on the group that is back to an expansion spree with a planned USD 90 billion capital expenditure over the next decade.
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Share of Adani group companies
An addition of Rs 84,064 crore in market value took the market capitalisation of 10 Adani group listed firms to Rs 17.51 lakh crore at the close of trading on Friday. This helped Adani, a first generation entrepreneur and chairman of the namesake conglomerate, overtake Ambani, who is currently on a cruise in Europe for a second, multi-million-dollar pre-wedding celebration of his youngest son Anant.
Adani, 61, had in 2022 become Asia's richest man after his personal wealth rose even as the global economy suffered a period of slowing growth. But in January 2023, his sprawling USD 21 billion conglomerate that owns many of India's airports, the nation's largest private-sector port, the media giant New Delhi Television, largest renewable energy firm, data centres and many other holdings was hit by a damning report by prominent short-seller Hindenburg Research.
Adani Hindenburg
Hindenburg alleged Adani's business empire was built through fraud, sending stock prices of his group crashing by USD 150 billion at its lowest point and him out of the world's top 20 billionaires. Ambani, who had to give away his Asia's richest tag to Adani in 2022, was again the top billionaire.
Adani group denied all allegations and worked on a comeback strategy that included containing debt, reducing founder share pledge and consolidating business in core competencies.