Helped by the rocket speed surging rally in the Adani Group stocks, billionaire Gautam Adani is ending the year as not only the world’s third richest person but also the top gainer by making more billions than anyone else on the planet in 2022.
Adani Group stocks have given fabulous returns to investors this year with four out of seven stocks of the giant giving multibagger returns going up to 200%. In the last one year, the group’s total market cap has also nearly doubled to Rs 18.6 lakh crore in mid-December as compared to Rs 9.6 lakh crore in 2021.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which ranks the world’s 500 richest people, shows that Adani became richer by $47 billion in 2022. At the bottom of the list is Tesla CEO Elon Musk who, despite being richer than Adani and world’s No. 2, lost $114 billion this year.
With his net worth estimated at $124 billion, Gautam Adani, the 60-year-old Ahmedabad-based industrialist, is behind Musk ($156 bn) and French luxury retail king Bernard Arnault ($163 bn) in the rich list.
The global conglomerate is now in the last leg of completing the acquisition of media broadcaster NDTV. Earlier in the year, it became India’s second largest cement producer by buying Ambuja Cement and ACC.
Gautam Adani also topped the list of Asia Heroes of Philanthropy 2022. Adani pledged 600 billion rupees ($7.7 billion) when he turned 60 this June, making him one of the world’s most generous philanthropists. The money will address healthcare, education and skill development.
The maverick Gujarati business tycoon, who dropped out of a south Mumbai college in 1978, started his journey as a small diamond trader in Dhanji Street before starting Adani Exports, which was later rechristened as Adani Enterprises.