How did Gautam Adani become the second richest man in Asia?

Gautam Adani is the only Indian to build not one, but five Rs 1 lakh crore companies. From 1.04 lakh crore to 5.05 lakh crore in a year.

Gautam Adani and family earned Rs 1,002 crore a day in the last one year to quadruple their wealth to Rs 5.05 lakh crore from Rs 1.04 lakh crore a year ago, making him the second richest man in Asia, according to a list by research company Hurun India. 

“Gautam Adani is the only Indian to build not one, but five Rs 1 lakh crore companies,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, Managing Director and Chief Researcher at Hurun India. 

In the last one year alone, 

• Adani Enterprise stock has rallied from Rs. 326 to Rs. 1526, (4.68x) 

• Adani Total gas has rallied from Rs. 193 to Rs. 1423, (7.37x) 

• Adani Transmission has rallied from Rs. 247 to Rs.1577, (6.38x) 

• Adani Green has rallied from Rs. 747 to Rs.1151, (1.54x) 

• Adani Ports has rallied from Rs. 343 to Rs.730, (2.12x) 

Gautam Adani and family is the promoter of all these companies, they have huge shareholdings. This is the main reason to how his wealth has grown 4x times in a single year. 

Building this big business empire 

Back in 1985, Adani started importing primary polymers for small scale industries. He bought it for a lesser price from outside and was able to sell it for a higher price and made huge profits from it. 

In 1988, Adani established Adani Exports, now known as Adani Enterprises – the holding company of the Adani Group. The company was dealing in agricultural and power commodities. 

In 1991, the economic liberalization policies turned out to be favourable for his company and he started expanding the businesses into trading of metals, textiles, and agricultural products. 

In 1995, he set up the first jetty. Originally operated by Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone, the operations were transferred to Adani Ports. Today, the company is the largest private multi-port operator. 

In May 2020, Adani won the world's largest solar bid by the Solar energy corporation of India (SECI) worth USD 6 billion. The 8000 MW photovoltaic power plant project will be taken up by Adani Green and Adani Solar will establish 2000 MW of additional solar cell and module manufacturing capacity. 

He has diversified his business into resources, logistics, energy, agricultural, defence, aerospace, and among others.

People generally comment on his relationship with Prime minister Narendra Modi which has helped him to grow steeply in a short span of time. I today's time, every businessman has controversies, but the people view should depend on how he is going to contribute himself for future India’s growth.