Gautam Adani - The Growth King

Self-made billionaire Gautam Adani had an exceptional 2022 even by his own standards, including closing the largest infrastructure deal India has seen

- By Raj Chengappa and M.G. Arun in Ahmedabad

It’s the festive season and the atrium of the glass-walled Adani conglomerate headquarters in Shantigram, Ahmedabad, is decked up with white cardboard boxes stacked in tapering rows to resemble a giant pyramid reaching to the skies. The installation, Convergence’, is meant to depict a united Adani vision of the future.

The Adani Group and founder-chairman Gautam Adani’s vision was in full flow in 2022 with much to celebrate. Expanding at an explosive rate, the group’s market capitalisation grew nine-fold in just three years to cross Rs 17.9 lakh crore as on December 23, making it India’s second most valuable firm just behind the Tata Group but ahead of Reliance Industries. Adani even overtook Reliance Industries’ Mukesh Ambani to become the richest person in India and Asia, apart from becoming the world’s third wealthiest with a personal net worth of over 125.8 billion per the Forbes list, as on December 28).

Demonstrating his penchant for betting big, in September Adani acquired the Swiss firm Holcim’s stake in ACC and Ambuja Cements for 10.5 billion around Rs 87,000 crore), the single largest acquisition in the infrastructure space. With that, his group became the second largest cement manufacturer in the country behind industry leader UltraTech of the Aditya Birla Group. The year also saw Adani make acquisitions in diverse sectors including two popular rice brands, the largest marine services company, a transmission project and media company NDTV. All this despite the lingering Covid pandemic and a still raging war in Ukraine that continues to cause global disruptions in business.