New Delhi: Billionaire industrialist and Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani is now eyeing to grab the second position on the list of the world’s wealthiest people. He is now barely $6 billion behind Amazon’s Jeff Bezos on Wednesday (September 7), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The wealth index, which measures the wealth of the world’s richest people on a day-to-day basis, reckons Adani’s net worth at $143 billion which places him just one position below America’s online retail czar Bezos, whose net worth dipped to $149 billion.
Last month, the Indian billionaire became the third-richest person on the planet as per the Bloomberg index—the first time an Asian has ranked in the top three as he dethroned France’s luxury retail king Bernard Arnault.
Adani’s wealth has risen by about $66.9 to $143 billion since the start of the year.
Worth mentioning here is that most of the other people on the top 10 list have seen their net worth drop this year due to falling stock markets, though Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani’s, who’s currently holding the 10th rank with a net worth of $92.1 billion, wealth has risen by $2.07 billion this year.
Separately, ET reported last week the value of Adani’s holdings in Adani Group companies jumped $112 billion in the past two years, and his net worth soared 365 per cent in the past two years from $30.7 billion to $142.7 billion, moving up from 40th to the 3rd spot on the Bloomberg ranking of top billionaires in the world during this period.
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So far this year, nearly 79 per cent of India’s total market-cap gain was registered only in the seven listed companies of the Adani Group, the report mentioned. While the m-cap of all the listed entities on the BSE has risen by Rs 12.74 lakh crore, seven listed firms of the Adani Group account for Rs 10.05 lakh crore during this period.
Analysts say Adani, 60, has managed to close the wealth gap with the world’s other richest tycoons rapidly because of the rising share value of his group companies such as Adani Transmission, Adani Enterprises, Adani Power, and so on. Adani’s companies stock prices jumped more than double so far this year. Adani Green Energy and Adani Total Gas trade at more than 750 times profit, while Adani Enterprises and Adani Transmission have valuations over 400 times.
Meanwhile, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk retained the top position on the wealth index with his net-worth touching $244 billion.
