Indian business tycoon Gautam Adani has been named the world’s third richest person with an estimated $137bn (£117bn) fortune. Adani is the first Asian to break into the top three of world’s wealthy.
Founder of the mining-to-energy conglomerate Adani Group after dropping out of university, Adani was on Tuesday ranked third on the daily-updated Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
As the market value of his companies has grown, the tycoon’s wealth has increased by $61 billion. Adani’s companies are into natural gas, coal mining and electricity generation and have most probably benefitted by the global energy price surge.
Bernard Arnault, the French billionaire who owns most of the luxury brand portfolio LVMH was leapfrogged by Adani who slotted into the third spot. All of the billionaires in the top 10 except Adani have experienced falls in their wealth this year – after making massive gains during the pandemic.
According to the Guardian, the only people with more wealth than Adani are Tesla boss Elon Musk with an estimated $251bn fortune and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos with $153bn.
Adani’s conglomerate owns India’s largest private sector seaport and airport operator. The conglomerate also owns a huge coalmine in Queensland, Australia. Adani’s company has faced fierce criticism for its environmental impact on the Great Barrier Reef. It has also faced backlash for using up billions of litres of water a year.
Last year, Adani’s conglomerate pledged to invest $70bn in green energy and become the world’s largest renewables producer.
