Adani with a Net Worth  of  $111 bn overtakes Ambani to become the richest Asian

Gautam Adani, the founder of the Adani group and the billionaire business tycoon of India, reclaims the title of the richest person in Asia, overtaking reliance head Mukesh Ambani. According to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, Mr. Adani has been ranked as the 11th richest person in the world with a $111 bn net worth, overtaking the net worth of  $109 bn of Mukhesh Ambani.

The Bloomberg Billionaire Index daily measures the personal wealth of the top 500 richest people and shares its updated value after the close of trading in New York stock market.  The index also declared Bernard Arnault, the 75-year-old owner of the world’s largest luxury brand, LVMH, as the richest person in the world with $203 bn. He has been followed by Elon Musk with $203 bn, Jeff Bezos with $199 bn and Mark Zuckerberg with $166 bn. 

The Bloomberg Billionaire Index declared the result after the sudden soar of the Adani group’s share to 14 per cent in the stock market. The sudden surge on Friday in the Adani stock was visible when the report from brokerage Jefferies highlighted the company’s plan to expand the business. The report made a positive impact on the stock market on Friday, resulting in ₹1.23 lakh crore investment in Adani group stocks, which, at the end of the day, added ₹84,064 crore to the market and took the market capitalisation of 10 Adani firms to ₹17.51 lakh crore.

The turnaround of Gautam Adani defeating the storm

Gautam Adani, a college dropout, started his professional venture in the diamond industry before establishing his own import-export company in 1988. From then on, he created 10 publicly traded companies in diversified fields, including multiple airports, media houses, and even the largest renewable energy firm. The fortune wheel was in favour of Mr. Gautam Adani even during the time of COVID 2020.

However, in 2022, a report from Hindenburg Research shambled the stock of the Adani group. The 2017-founded forensic research group claimed that the Adani Group improperly uses tax and has high debt levels. The report immediately melted $150 bn of Adani’s shares, making him out of the top 20 billionaires list.  The allegations from the Hindenburg Research Group made the Supreme Court of India create a panel to judge the allegations against Adani. However, the Supreme Court once again ordered the conclusion of the investigation into the Adani Group, which was being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). The investigation team stated that it was unable to complete its inquiry.

The judgments of the Supreme Court to end the investigation started to boost the stocks of the Adani group, making him the richest man, by taking the position of Mukesh Ambani, the reliance head, after 12 months for a short stint. Finally, after five months, Adani took back the title of the richest Asian from Ambani.

Adani’s optimism and trust in his business strategies were well reflected, even during the allegations from Hindenburg. Even in his last week’s interview with NDTV, he said, “ The road ahead is paved with extraordinary possibilities and I can promise you that the Adani Group today is stronger than it has ever been.”

Meanwhile, another business tycoon from India and the second richest man in Asia, Mukesh Ambani, and his wife, Nita Ambani, are holding a pre-wedding cruise party where the cruise will travel from France to Italy. The pre-wedding, which started in June, is going to last for four days and is a part of the wedding celebration for his youngest son, Anant Ambani, and daughter-in-law, Radhika Merchant. The main wedding and the following rituals will start on July 12, 2024.