Gautam Adani is Asia's second richest person after Mukesh Ambani

Adani Group companies have been among the biggest benefeciaries of the post-pandemic rally on the bourses, seeing a jump of about 6.5 times in m-cap since March 2020.

Thanks to a continued rise in the market capitalisation of the Adani Group companies, its promoter Gautam Adani is now the second richest Asian and fourteenth richest businessman in the world with a networth of $66.5 billion.

Reliance Industries promoter Mukesh Ambani remains the wealthiest businessman in Asia with a networth of around $76.5 billion, according to Bloomberg data.

The six Adani Group companies had combined market capitalisation of Rs 8.36 trillion as on Thursday, against Reliance Industries’ market capitalisation of Rs 12.6 trillion.

Adani Green tops the charts in the group with m-cap with Rs 1.99 trillion.

The Adani Group’s market cap has nearly doubled since the beginning of current calendar year, against a 3.6 per cent decline in the RIL’s m-cap over the period.

Adani has added $32.7 billion to his networth year-to-date in 2021, while Ambani’s networth has declined by $176 million.

Zhong Shanshan, who was second richest in Asia, and Adani were neck and neck on May 17, with networth of $63.9 billion and $63.1 billion, respectively.

A day later, Adani took the lead with his networth rising to $65.9 billion, while Shanshan’s dipped to $63.7 billion.

The Gautam Adani family owns around 72 per stake in the group companies on average, while the Mukesh Ambani family owns around 50 per cent stake in RIL.

Other group listed companies, such as TV18 group, DEN Network, and Hathway Cable are subsidiaries of Reliance Industries.

Adani Group companies have been among the biggest benefeciaries of the post-pandemic rally on the bourses, seeing a jump of about 6.5 times in m-cap since March 2020, against a 68 per cent rise in Sensex and 78 per cent rise in RIL.

Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters