Gautam Adani regains Asia’s richest man tag

INTERNATIONAL DESK : Indian billionaire business magnate Gautam Adani has reclaimed the tag of Asia’s richest person surpassing Mukesh Ambani.

Adani with a net worth of $111 billion is now ranked as the 11th richest in the world, ahead of Ambani whose $109 billion wealth placed him at No 12, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Sixty-one year-old Adani’s standing rose after a surge in stock price of the listed companies in his apples-to-airport conglomerate helped him overtake Reliance Industries head Mukesh Ambani.

Shares of all Adani Group companies surged on Friday by up to 14% after US brokerage Jefferies put a bullish view on the group that is back to an expansion spree with a planned $90 billion capital expenditure over the next decade.

Adani 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 $21 billion conglomerate that owns many of India’s airports, the largest private-sector port, the media giant New Delhi Television, largest renewable energy firm, data centres and many other holdings, was hit by a damaging report by US short-seller Hindenburg Research.

Hindenburg alleged Adani’s business empire was built through fraud, sending stock prices of his group crashing by $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 the allegations and worked on a comeback strategy that included containing debt, reducing founder share pledge and consolidating business in core competencies. The group raked in record earnings in the fiscal year ended 31 March this year.

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