Meet the only Asian to have ever broken into the world’s richest top 3

With a US$137.4 billion fortune, India’s Gautam Adani now trails only Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos of the US in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index

It’s the first time an Asian has broken into the top three in the ranking – fellow Indian Mukesh Ambani and China’s Jack Ma never made it that far

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Indian billionaire Gautam Adani pictured in April. All told, he has added US$60.9 billion to his fortune this year alone, five times more than anyone else. Photo: Reuters

Published: 10:23am, 30 Aug 2022Updated: 1:43pm, 30 Aug 2022

Few outside India had heard of Gautam Adani just a few years ago. But the Indian businessman, a college dropout who first tried his luck as a diamond trader before turning to coal, this week became the world’s third-richest person.

It’s the first time an Asian person has broken into the top three of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index – fellow Indian Mukesh Ambani and China’s Jack Ma never made it that far. With a US$137.4 billion fortune, Adani has overtaken France’s Bernard Arnault and now trails just Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos of the United States in the ranking.

Adani, 60, has spent the past few years expanding his coal-to-ports conglomerate, venturing into everything from data centres to cement, media and alumina. The group now owns India’s largest private-sector port and airport operator, city-gas distributor and coal miner. While its Carmichael mine in Australia has been criticised by environmentalists, it pledged in November to invest US$70 billion in green energy to become the world’s largest renewable-energy producer.

Environmental activists protest in Brisbane against the Carmichael coal mine in 2017. Photo: EPA

While his empire has expanded to one of the world’s largest conglomerates fuelling the remarkable gains in wealth, concerns have grown over the rapid growth. Adani’s deals spree has been predominantly funded with debt and his empire is “deeply overleveraged”, CreditSights said in a report this month.

Some lawmakers and market watchers have also raised concerns over opaque shareholder structures and a lack of analyst coverage at Adani Group companies. Yet the shares have soared – some of them more than 1,000 per cent since 2020, with valuations hitting 750 times earnings – as the tycoon focused on areas that Prime Minister Narendra Modi deems crucial to meeting India’s long-term goals.

The pivot to green energy and infrastructure has won investments from firms including Warburg Pincus and TotalEnergies SE, helping Adani enter the echelons previously dominated by US tech moguls. The surge in coal in recent months has further turbocharged his ascent.

All told, Adani has added US$60.9 billion to his fortune in 2022 alone, five times more than anyone else. He first overtook Ambani as the richest Asian in February, became a “centibillionaire” in April and surpassed Microsoft Corp.’s Bill Gates as the world’s fourth-richest person last month.