According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index on the 23rd (local time), Adani’s fortune was $112.5 billion (regarding 147 trillion won), $230 million (regarding 300 billion won) more than Gates in fifth place. Although the global billionaire’s assets have declined in general due to the stock market crash and the collapse of virtual currencies, Chairman Adani has made his fortunes rather large. Known as the ‘infrastructure rich’, he benefited from rising raw material prices and favorable news related to the Indian government’s development policy, increasing his fortune by $35.6 billion (regarding 46.5 trillion won) this year alone. It also climbed to number 10 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index in February, this time moving up from number 5 to number four.
Gautam AdaniBill Gates, on the other hand, lost $26.5 billion of his fortune this year due to a fall in stock prices and a strengthening of philanthropy.
Adani started business as a small commodity trader and grew into India’s leading entrepreneur by establishing the Adani Group in 1988. Although the Adani Group focuses on infrastructure businesses such as ports and airports, it has strengths in the development and distribution of resources such as coal and gas. Recently, they announced a large-scale investment plan related to renewable energy and green hydrogen production, and are actively taking the lead in the future market. Chairman Adani also announced that he would invest $70 billion (regarding 91 trillion won) by 2030 to raise the Adani group into the world’s largest renewable energy producer.
Earlier this year, POSCO signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Korea’s POSCO for joint projects, including the construction of an eco-friendly integrated steel mill (a steel mill equipped with all three processes of iron making, steel making, and rolling). It is known that Mundra, Gujarat, in northwestern India, is being considered as the site for the construction of the steel mill. The Adani Group owns its own port in Mundra.
Gautam Adani signs an agreement with POSCO Born in 1962 in Talsad, northern Gujarat, as the son of a small textile trader, Chairman Adani enrolled in the Department of Trade at the University of Gujarat, but dropped out following two years and started his own business. He started his business as a trader for plastics, etc. A trading company called ‘Adani export’ he founded in 1988 has grown into a holding company of the Adani group called ‘Adani Enterprise’ today. I was lucky. India’s economic liberalization policy in 1991 expanded its business to include metals, textiles, and agriculture. In 1994, he obtained the right to operate the port of Mundra, Gujarat, and later, as he acquired the brokerage rights for aluminum, etc., the business began to expand. In 2006, as it entered the electric power business, the business expanded to trade -> port distribution -> raw material brokerage -> energy -> airports. Meanwhile, Chairman Adani has been criticized for being too close with political leaders such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the process of building wealth and conducting business through filial piety and monopoly on the market.
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