David Bridges
Indian billionaire Gautam Adani surpassed Louis Vuitton’s LVMUY CEO Bernard Arnault to become the world’s third richest person after gaining $1.12 billion in a day on Monday.
What Happened: With Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk and Amazon Inc’s AMZN Jeff Bezos‘ occupying the top two seats in the Bloomberg’s list of the world’s 500 wealthiest people — Adani stood third after his fortune swelled as much as $61 billion this year.
Adani — who is also the biggest wealth gainer in 2022 — became the first Asian billionaire business magnate to achieve this feat on the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.
His wealth stood at $137 billion, inching closer to Bezos,’ whose net worth is estimated at $153 billion. However, he remains $114 billion away from Musk, whose fortune stood at $251 billion.
The massive spur in Adani’s fortune was triggered by the announcement of his conglomerate last week that it aims to indirectly buy a 29.18% stake in New Delhi Television (NDTV) and launch an open offer for another 26% stake. The open offer would be worth ₹4.93 billion ($61.73 million). There has been an ongoing legal tussle between the NDTV founders and Adani Group, but if the deal turns successful, it would expand the conglomerate’s footprint in the media industry.
Meanwhile, last week, CreditSights, a Fitch Group unit’s report, said Adani’s conglomerate is “deeply overleveraged,” with the group investing aggressively across existing as well as new businesses, predominantly funded with debt. The report noted that “in the worst-case scenario,” it may spiral into a debt trap and possibly a default.
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Photo: Courtesy of Wikimedia
Maya Kensington
Sophie Langley
