Gautam Adani’s wealth gains were more than world’s top three billionaires in 2021, says report

Adani Group Founder Gautam Adani’s wealth grew by $49 billion (approximately Rs 3.71 lakh crore), or 151% in 2021, according to the 2022 M3M Hurun Global Rich List released on Wednesday.

His gains were more than the top three global billionaires, including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Bernard Arnault, the report said.

“Gautam Adani, 59, and family of energy conglomerate Adani Group was the world’s fastest riser, after seeing the group grow to a $150 billion [approximately Rs 11.3 lakh crore] value,” Hurun India said in a press release.

With a total net worth of $81 billion (approximately Rs 6.13 lakh crore), Adani is the second richest man in Asia after Reliance Chairperson Mukesh Ambani, whose wealth stands at $103 billion (approximately Rs 7.8 lakh crore).

HCL chairman Shiv Nadar was ranked third in the list, followed by Serum Institute of India head Cyrus Poonawalla and ArcelorMittal’s Lakshmi Mittal. Their net worth was $28 billion, $26 billion and $25 billion [approximately Rs 2 lakh crore] respectively.

The research group in its report said that India cemented the third spot globally with 215 billionaires, an increase of 38 from last year.

Anas Junaid, Chief Researcher of Hurun India, said that the list was aimed at demonstrating the positioning of Indian wealth creation in comparison to the rest of the world.

“The list [is] evidence that India is a rocket ship when it comes to wealth creation,” Junaid said. “For instance, India ranks third based not only on the number of billionaires but also in terms of the number of billionaires who have added at least a billion dollars to their wealth.”

Junaid said that Indian billionaires in the last 10 years added $700 billion (approximately Rs 53 lakh crore) cumulative wealth to their accounts. “This is equivalent to Switzerland’s GDP and twice the GDP of the UAE!” he said, according to PTI.