Gautam Adani surpasses Mukesh Ambani to become richest person in Asia

Indian business magnate and billionaire Gautam Adani has surpassed Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani to become India's and Asia's richest person. According to reports, the Adani Group Chairman's networth has increased significantly since April 2020. In March 2020, Adani's networth was USD 4.91 billion. In the last 20 months, the same has increased to USD 90 billion, a surge of more than 1800 per cent.

Mukesh Ambani's networth took a slight hit after RIL scrapped its deal with Aramco, a Saudi Arabian public petroleum and natural gas company based out of Dhahran. Even so, Adani's feat was expected as the Bloomberg Billionaires Index showed his wealth as USD 88.8 billion on Tuesday while Ambani's wealth stood at USD 91 billion. The change came on Wednesday after shares of Reliance Industries dipped by 1.77 per cent while Adani Group's stocks increased by 2.34 per cent, closing in on the difference between the net wealth of both billionaires. 

Gautam Adani surpasses Chinese billionaire Zong Shanshan to become 2nd richest man in Asia

Earlier in May, Gautam Adani had emerged as Asia's second-richest person surpassing Chinese billionaire Zong Shanshan. The Bloomberg Billionaire Index had indicated that Adani Group's net worth at the time was $66.5 billion as compared to Zhong Shanshan’s $65.6 billion. In terms of most wealth owned by a person, the figures at that time had also implied that Gautam Adani had trailed behind his Indian competitor and Reliance Industries Limited  Chairman Mukesh Ambani. 

According to Bloomberg, Adani had surpassed Zong Shanshan in February. Shanshan, who is the founder and chairman of Nongfu Spring was once the world's sixth richest man. Apart from this, he is also the majority owner of the Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise. In the past year, Adani's net worth had climbed by $32.7 billion while Ambani's plummeted. 

Adani Group 

Gautam Adani has built his business empire over two decades. The Adani Group today consists of major mines, ports and power plants to airports, data centres, city gas, and defence. Additionally, the group has also gained control of seven airports, including a major chunk of India's air traffic. Moreover, Adani's organisation has also made major gains in renewable energy capacity addition. Apart from this, the group has also bagged a contract to co-develop a port in Sri Lanka while buying new ports in India.