New Delhi. Gautam Adani has become Asia’s richest person after the shares of listed companies of Adani Group, which is active in the apple to airport sector, surged. He has left behind Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries. According to the ‘Bloomberg Billionaires Index’, Adani is now the 11th richest person in the world with a net worth of US$ 111 billion. Ambani is at the 12th position with assets worth US$ 109 billion.
Adani Group has planned a capital expenditure of $90 billion as part of its expansion plan during the next decade. After this, American brokerage company Jefferies has presented a better opinion about the group. Following these developments, the shares of all the companies of the group rose by 14 percent on Friday. This increased the market valuation of 10 listed companies of Adani Group by Rs 84,064 crore. At the time of closing of trading on Friday, the market capitalization of 10 listed companies of Adani Group was Rs 17.51 lakh crore.
First-generation entrepreneur and Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani has overtaken Ambani to become Asia’s richest person after shares of the group’s companies surged. Ambani is currently in Europe for his younger son Anant’s pre-wedding ceremonies. Adani (61) became Asia’s richest man in 2022 after his personal wealth increased. However, the global economy was sluggish at that time. After this, in January 2023, the market capitalization of Adani’s companies fell sharply after US short selling company Hindenburg reported allegations of fraud against the group.
Hindenburg had alleged that Adani’s business empire was built through fraud, causing the group’s share prices to fall to their lowest level by $150 billion and he dropped out of the list of the world’s top 20 billionaires. This made Ambani once again Asia’s richest person in 2022. However, the Adani Group rejected all these allegations. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Adani’s total wealth has increased by $26.8 billion so far in 2024, while Ambani’s wealth has increased by $12.7 billion.