Will Adani take over Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk to become world no 1?
The richest man in Asia, Gautam Adani, is currently the third richest in the world, behind only Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. For the first time, he defeated French businessman and co-founder of the luxury label Louis Vuitton, Bernard Arnault.
Bloomberg Billionaires Index indicates that Gautam Adani has a net worth of $137 billion, which is comparable to Jeff Bezos’s wealth of $153 billion. He still falls $114 billion short of Elon Musk’s net worth of $251 billion, though. With a $61 billion increase, he will also experience the biggest wealth increase in 2022. Bezos lost $39 billion, Musk lost $19 billion, and Mukesh Ambani made $2 billion during the same time period, in contrast.
Between Ambani and Adani, there is a growing gap. Adani has surpassed Ambani by an excessive amount of $92 billion net worth, after months of close competition.
Due to Reliance Industries’ recent decline in market capitalization, Ambani has also dropped from the top ten billionaires list.
1. Elon Musk has a $251 billion net worth.
2. The total net worth of Jeff Bezos is $153 billion.
3. Gautam Adani has a $137 billion net worth.
4. The total net worth of Bernard Arnault is $136 billion.
5. The total net worth of Bill Gates is $117 billion.
6. The total net worth of Warren Buffet is $100 billion.
7. The total net worth of Larry Page is $93.3 billion.
8. The total net worth of Sergey Brin is $95.8 billion.
9. The total net worth of Steve Ballmer is $93.7 billion.
10. The total net worth of Larry Ellison is $93.3 billion.
He is standing here despite “deeply overleveraged” worries.
A CreditSights report that was released just last week raised concerns about the group’s enormous debt, which caused a sharp 94,000 crore decline in the group’s seven listed stocks.
The report asserts that the group’s decision to pursue inorganic growth through acquisitions is overly ambitious and could lead to a “massive debt trap.” The report predicted that, in the worst-case scenario, one or more of the group’s businesses would fail.
The Adani group’s $10.5 billion open offer for the two cement companies it purchased in May recently received approval. Additionally, Israel’s Haifa port received $1.18 billion in funding.
Despite the small number of equity investments made by the group, the report claims that “these are insignificant in light of the entity in questions overall Capex requirements” Despite the group chairman’s personal wealth, the agency asserted that it was not solaced.
Since the initial Covid lockdown, Adani’s wealth has almost tripled.
Understanding Adani’s rise to the top requires knowing where he was two years ago. According to data from Bloomberg, Adani had a net worth of $6 billion on the day the Covid pandemic led to an all-out lockdown in India.
In other words, if you had invested one lakh in Adani on March 24, 2020, your investment would be worth 23 lakh today. Since then, his wealth has nearly tripled. Mukesh Ambani, on the other hand, had a net worth of $32.6 billion as of March 2020. Its current $92 billion value is a threefold increase.
Because some of the richest US billionaires have recently increased their philanthropy, he was able to surpass some of them. While Warren Buffett has already donated more than $35 billion to the charity Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates announced in July that he would be transferring $20 billion to the organization.
Together with Melinda French Gates, Bill Gates’ ex-wife, they started the Giving Pledge initiative in 2010, promising to donate most of their wealth while still alive. They fell in the Bloomberg wealth rankings due to the enormous sums of money they have donated to charitable causes. Their new positions are 5 and 164, respectively.
He increased his charitable giving in June as part of his pledge to donate $7.7 billion to social causes in honor of his 60th birthday. He hasn’t yet provided any details. Only Reliance Industries and the Tata Group are larger conglomerates in India than the Adani Group.
It has future plans to significantly grow its green hydrogen and airport businesses, as well as to enter the telecom industry. Recently, the Group announced plans to invest more than Rs 580 billion in the construction of an integrated 4.1 mtpa alumina refinery and a 30 mtpa iron ore beneficiation plant in Odisha.
Adani Group companies include Adani Enterprises, Adani Green Energy, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, Adani Power, Adani Total Gas, and Adani Transmission. So, it is now very difficult to predict whether Adani will become the richest man in the world.
Can Adani surpass Bezos?
Adani’s net worth is $9 billion less than Bezos’, which, based on the Bloomberg index, is currently $152 billion. Analysts claim that given the rapid rise in value currently being experienced by Adani Group shares, Adani can overtake Bezos to become the second richest person in the world. Still, it will be difficult for him to surpass Elon Musk, who has a net worth of $247 billion, or $104 billion more than Adani. Bezos is the founder, executive chairman, and also the former president and CEO of Amazon. Bezos was the first centibillionaire on the Forbes wealth index.
The 60-year-old billionaire has diversified his company’s operations over the last few years to include renewable energy, ports, telecom, and media. According to CreditSights, a credit rating agency, Adani’s empire is “deeply over-leveraged.” Adani Group’s hostile takeover of NDTV and Adani Group’s acquisition of ACC Cements and Ambuja Cements from Holcim are two of his most recent acquisitions that have generated a lot of buzzes.
