Gautam Adani beats Mukesh Ambani to become Asia’s richest person

NEW DELHI: Billionaire businessman Gautam Adani, chairman and founder of conglomerate Adani Group, has become richest person in Asia, beating Reliance Industries Ltd’s Mukesh Ambani, according to the latest tally of Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Gautam Adani, who now ranks among the top 10 wealthiest persons of the world, has a net-worth of $88.5 billion, about $600 million higher than Mukesh Ambani’s net worth, reported foreign media.

Gautam Adani’s wealth increased by about $12 billion year-to-date, while Mukesh Ambani’s wealth saw a YTD fall of about $2.07 billion. To be sure, Mukesh Ambani is currently the second richest person in India as well as Asia, and is the eleventh richest person of the world, according to Bloomberg’s tally of top 500 richest people in the world. As of February 8, Ambani’s total net worth is $87.9 billion.

Last year in November, Mukesh Ambani was ranked the wealthiest person in India and Asia, and Gautam Adani was trailing him by about $2.2 billion. In the last one year, Reliance Industries share price has risen by about 18.50%. It is trading at Rs2,312.75 a share as of Tuesday morning. In comparison, Adani Enterprises Ltd has soared over 170% in last one year and was trading at Rs1,741 on Tuesday morning.

Gautam Adani has tapped into a basket of newly emerging sectors such as renewable and other green energy projects. Some Adani-owned firms such as Adani Total Gas Ltd and Adani Transmission Ltd have performed much better than others in the last year, with the former jumping by about 370% and the latter rising by 250%. Interestingly, Adani’s FMCG firm Adani Wilmar, which listed on the benchmark indices Tuesday, listed at a 4% discount in a tepid debut.

“The Adani Group has spotted and entered all the happening sectors at the right time, which has appealed to a select band of foreign portfolio investors,” Deepak Jasani, head of retail research at brokerage firm HDFC Securities Ltd told Bloomberg News. “The sectors are capital-intensive and the company has faced little difficulty in raising funds to expand,” he added.

Both the billionaires, who have bagged profits through oil and fossil-fuel intensive sectors, have been investing in a renewable energy push. Adani has committed to invest $70 billion this decade to help his company while Ambani has committed $10 billion over the next three years as part of a larger $76 billion spend plan in renewables, according to the Bloomberg report.