Adani among world’s 10 wealthiest people

INDIAN business magnate Gautam Adani has joined the league of the world’s top 10 richest persons on the back of the recent stock market rally.

Adani, who runs diversified businesses ranging from green energy to mining, was ranked eighth on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as of Friday (8), becoming the richest person in Asia. His total wealth stood at $106 billion (£81.47 bn), making him Asia's only centibillionaire.

He was three notches above another Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani who was in the 11th position on the index with a total net worth of $95.9 bn (£73.71 bn).

However, the list of the top 10 wealthiest persons was dominated by Americans with only Adani and French industrialist Bernard Arnault who was in the third position being others in the elite club.

Tesla founder Elon Musk continued to remain at the top with a net worth of $268 bn (£205.99 bn), followed by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos with a total wealth of $182 bn (£139.89 bn).

While no Briton featured in the extended list of 50 richest persons, Indian technology tycoon Azim Premji was ranked 36th with a wealth of $34.1 bn (£26.21 bn) at his command and HCL Technologies’ Shiv Nadar was at the 44th position with his wealth valued at $29.1 bn (£22.37 bn).

Irish-Indian industrialist Pallonji Mistry was ranked 38th on the index.

While the rally in stock markets worldwide after the 2020 lows meant the net worth of many businesspersons controlling listed entities soared, Adani's wealth shot up by an exponential $90 bn in the past two years.

Among the listed Adani group companies, Adani Enterprises has gone up 86 per cent in the past year and the valuation of Adani Green Energy doubled during the same period.

India’s benchmark stock market index BSE Sensex climbed 19.5 per cent since April last year and America’s Nasdaq has remained flat.

Ambani, whose Reliance Industries largely focused on oil and gas and retail till 2010 has also diversified into telecoms, media and renewable energy.