Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani surpassed LVMH Chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault on Friday to become the world’s second-richest person with a net worth of $155.5 billion, according to Real Time Billionaires Rankings, up $5.2 billion from yesterday or 3.49%. Arnault, whose fortune is $300 million behind Adani’s at $155.2 billion, slipped to No.3. Adani also overtook Amazon chairman and founder Jeff Bezos, whose fortune fell $2.3 billion, or 1.49%, to $149.7 billion. Tesla CEO Elon Musk remains the richest person in the world with a net worth of $273.5 billion.
Adani owns stakes in six publicly traded companies operating in ports, airports, green energy, data centers and more. Adani became Asia’s richest person in February this year, overtaking fellow Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, whose current net worth of $93.4 puts him at No. 8 in the world.
Shares in Adani conglomerate Adani Enterprises are surging, hitting an all-time high of 3,749.15 rupees ($46) a share yesterday, more than doubling from a year ago. Shares in his Adani Power have tripled to 398.4 rupees ($4.9) over the past year in response to rising electricity demand. Renewables company Adani Green Energy also saw its stake nearly double to 2,343.05 rupees ($29.2) in the past year.
Adani’s desire to expand has made it take bold steps to enter new ventures. The group is in the process of completing the acquisition of the Indian branch of Swiss cement producer Holcim Group for $10.5 billion. Under this transaction, Adani Group will acquire shares in two listed cement companies – 63.11% stake in Ambuja Cement and 54.53% stake in ACC. The transactions, for which open bids were made last week, would make Adani the second-largest cement producer in India.
Last month, media unit Adani launched a hostile bid to acquire New Delhi Television (NDTV), a broadcaster seen as anti-government. Adani Group AMG Media Networks (AMNL) bought Vishvapradhan Commercial for 1.14 billion rupees ($14.3 million), acquiring a 29.2% stake in NDTV. Renewable energy is the next big play: Adani’s utility company Adani New Industries has announced that it will invest more than $50 billion in green energy development over the next 10 years.
