On the 30th, Bloomberg billionaire released the latest data, India's richest man, Goltam Adani, with a net worth of $137 billion, surpassed the chairman of LV Group and ranked among the top three in the global rich list, second only to Tesla's Elon Musk and Amazon's Jeff Bezos, which is also the first time that Asians have entered the top three of the list.
It is reported that Adani is currently the world's fastest growing wealth richest, in 2021 Adani wealth growth rate ranked first in India, in February this year its wealth surpassed India's rich Ambani to become the richest man in India and Asia, in July surpassed Bill Gates, becoming the world's fourth richest man.
If you look at public information, Adani's experience of making a fortune is an inspirational story of an old-fashioned college student who dropped out of school to start a business and started from scratch. In his second year at the University of Girat, Adani voluntarily dropped out of school and went to Mumbai to become a diamond sorter and then started the diamond trade. Adani amassed a fortune of Rs one million in just one year, and in 1981 he returned to his hometown to enter the plastics industry with his brother. Subsequently, Adani founded Adani Export Co., Ltd., which later became the "Adani Group".
When India implemented economic reforms in 1991, Adani took advantage of the spring breeze of the reforms to expand its business territory, and its business areas entered agriculture, textiles and metallurgy, and even contracted ports in Girghirat.
If Adani's entrepreneurial journey is nothing more than a story of an Indian entrepreneur standing on the cusp of the wind, there is no "legend" to speak of, then what exactly makes him increase his assets by a thousand times and become the richest man with the fastest wealth growth in more than thirty years?
Indian version of "Song Ziwen"
It was in 2003 that Adani met the Chief Minister of Gijrat, Narendra Modi. In 2002, when Hindus and Muslims rioted in Gujarat, killing and injuring countless people, Modi was criticized by The Indian political and business circles for handling the matter poorly, and was even banned from entry by the United States for ten years.
However, Adani thinks that Modi is "strange and liveable". At a 2003 event organized by the Confederation of Indian Industries, Modi was again questioned by the business elite, and Adani broke with these established business elites and once stood up for Modi.
Adani then formed a new business guild through which he introduced Modi to more like-minded politicians and entrepreneurs. When Modi ran, Adani provided him with campaign funds; When Modi travels, Adani provides him with a private jet. As it turned out, Adani's gamble won, and in 2014, Modi won the election and became India's prime minister, and Adani's business empire began to expand in a big way.
If Adani's investment in Modi is quite like the Indian version of "Lü Buwei", then the expansion of Adani's business empire is india's version of the "Four Great Families of the Republic of China".
With Modi's acquiescence, state-owned land in Gigirat was leased to the Adani Group for $1 per square meter, which was subsequently leased to other businesses or factories for $11 per square meter.
Every time Modi visits a foreign country, Adani Group can always get a piece of the bilateral agreement signed by the Indian government, and modi visited China in 2015, during which China and India signed a $22 billion investment and trade contract, of which Adani Group divided into photovoltaic industrial parks, natural gas investment, and the establishment of "sister ports" with the Port of Guangzhou.
Modi's visit to Australia brought $7 billion worth of coal mining deals to Adani, which has since become India's largest coal supplier. After the rise of the clean energy revolution, Adani once again took advantage of Modi's relationship to take the lead in entering the photovoltaic industry, and in 2020, Adani Group won a $6 billion bid for a photovoltaic development plan.
For Adani, it is already common to get a piece of india's bilateral agreement, in addition to the above projects, Adani has also been involved in the construction of the India-Japan high-speed railway, Bangladesh thermal power plant and other projects.
Sometimes Adani even dared to rob foreign projects, such as the port development and wind power construction project in Sri Lanka in 2022, and Modi forced the Sri Lankan government to subcontract the project to the Adani Group.
On the other hand, the tentacles of Adani's business empire gradually reached out to India's domestic infrastructure.
As mentioned earlier, Adani controls India's largest coal and photovoltaic industries, so he is also India's largest electricity operator, supplying electricity to seven indian states and continuing to annex state-owned power plants.
In addition, Adani controls more than 70 media outlets in India, influencing at least 800 million Indians.
In addition to its involvement in the power and media industries, Adani was granted the right to operate 6 airports in India in 2019, and the Modi government also sought to amend the law to grant Adani a monopoly on tariffs and other charges at the airport.
Adani is higher than Indian law
As Adani's business empire expanded, its debt problems began to emerge. In 2015, Credit Suisse reported that Adani Group was one of the 10 companies with the worst debt backlog, with more than $30 billion in outstanding debt. Normally, such highly indebted businesses are barred from bidding for projects in any country, as well as from acquiring any company.
But under Modi's patronage, this is not a problem, if there is, then change the law, this kind of thing abounds:
In 2016, India amended its special economic zone law to allow Adani to obtain tariff exemptions on coal imported from Indonesia, and according to statistics, the coal imported by Adani in 2017 alone "evaded" $70 million.
In 2018, the Indian Ministry of Shipping asked foreign ships to call at private ports first, and it happened that the Adani Group owned 6 ports, of which the port of Mondella belonged to the Indian government in the 90s, but Modi sold the government equity to Adani for $20 million, and the stake in the port has been completely acquired by Adani so far, becoming the largest private port in India.
So how amazing was Adani's wealth growth?
In the 1990s and early 2000s, Adani was just an obscure entrepreneur in India, and since Modi came to power, Adani's wealth has risen like a rocket, with stocks up 265% and personal wealth up 152%, but as of 2020, Adani is only worth $7.9 billion.
After the outbreak of the new crown epidemic and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Adani's value began to soar, its group stock rose by more than 1,000%, the valuation reached 750 times the price-earnings ratio, and in 2021, Adani's wealth increased by 261%, exceeding 100 billion US dollars.
However, it is worth noting that in 2021, including India, the GDP and equity growth of multinational companies in most countries in the world are almost negative, and only the wealth of India's major oligarchs led by Adani has achieved explosive growth.
In a sense, pelosi, the "capitol hill god" of the United States, is simply a small witch compared to Adani.