By John Ikani
Gautam Adani became the world’s second richest person today, but only for a brief period.
The tycoon’s net worth surged $4 billion overnight to $154 billion to surpass Amazon boss Jeff Bezos and Louis Vuitton’s Bernard Arnault.
Forbes’ real-time billionaires list showed that he grabbed the second spot before he was pushed back to the third position by Arnault.
Tesla founder Elon Musk remained well out in front with a fortune of more than $270 billion.
Born in the city of Ahmedabad in the western state of Gujarat to a middle-class family, Adani dropped out of college to work his way towards becoming a self-made billionaire.
Gautam Adani, 60, is the founder of conglomerate Adani Group, the largest port operator in India. The Ahmedabad, India-based infrastructure group is also India’s largest closely held thermal coal producer and largest coal trader.
His $13 billion (revenue) Adani Group’s interests span infrastructure, commodities, power generation and transmission and real estate.
In May 2022, he made a big entry into cement when he won the race to acquire Swiss giant Holcim’s cement business in India for $10.5 billion. Adani also wants to be the world’s largest producer of green energy and has said he will invest upto $70 billion on renewable energy projects.
He has increased his charitable giving, pledging in June to donate $7.7 billion for social causes to mark his 60th birthday.
He owns 75% stakes in Adani Enterprises, Adani Power and Adani Transmissions, according to March 2022 stock exchange filings. He also owns about 37% of Adani Total Gas, 65% of Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone and 61% of Adani Green Energy.
