A billionaire survivor of the ransom, the terrorist attacks are now rivaling Ambani

Photographer: Manoj Verma / Hindustan Times / Getty Images

Gautam Adani has a way of surviving the crisis. It was held for a ransom more than two decades ago, and in 2008 it was one under the hostages of the Mumbai Taj Mahal Palace Hotel terrorist attacks that killed more than 160 people.

Since then, his business acumen and ability to overcome obstacles has squeezed him among the richest in India. And while the coronavirus epidemic has never sunk the nation recession this year, Adani’s group has grown steadily. Its conglomerate has secured global partners, invested and squeezed into new sectors.

Shares of the majority of its companies have increased, including mining, gas and port shares. Adani Zöld Energia Zrt. Jumped more than six times this year, as it received a record The $ 6 billion solar business is another step toward the company’s goal of becoming the world’s largest renewable energy producer by 2025.

“The market is FOMO syndrome when it comes to Adani stocks,” said Sanjiv Bhasin, director of investment management company IIFL Securities Ltd. “Its business activities are in line with current central government ideas. Therefore, the path ahead for this conglomerate will be smooth for at least five to six years.”

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With an estimated wealth of $ 32.4 billion, Adani Mukesh is the richest man in India after Ambani, who dominated the news in partnership with a few major names in Silicon Valley. This year alone, stock market waves increased Adani’s net worth by $ 21.1 billion – even more than Ambani’s profits. Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Adani Group representatives declined to comment on this story.

After graduating from university, Adani tried his luck in the diamond industry in Mumbai in the early eighties. He soon returned to his homeland, Gujarat, to help run his brother’s plastic business before setting up in 1988. Adani Enterprises Ltd., the group’s preferred merchant. A decade later, it began operating the port of Mundra, located on the shores of the Arabian Sea, and eventually built India’s largest private port operator.

The group has also become the country’s largest non-state-owned power generator and a leader in coal mining, and has expanded abroad. In Australia, the tycoon is still being dealt with presents negative publicity about Carmichael’s coal project, which was approved last year after decades of fighting with regulators and environmentalists.

Like other entrepreneurs, Adani has repeatedly chosen new industries that the government has encouraged to develop and where competition has been relatively minimal. The 58-year-old tycoon still often cites itnation-building ”as a key part of its strategy, which is in line with the ideas of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“As they have grown from an Ahmedabad trading company to a multi-vertical and well-diversified conglomerate – the journey is amazing,” said Umesh Mehta, head of research at Samco Securities in Mumbai. “They had a futuristic vision to build a business that has growth potential and that will somehow help India that the government has blessed.”

Adani rose in the ranks when Modi, also a Gujarati, gained power. The businessman started trading in the port of Mundra and built his industrial zone when Modi was the state’s executive and one of the most important supporters of the politician for almost two decades.

The billionaire’s rapid diversification began around 2015. When Modi undertook develop local production of defense equipment, rapidly built military supply capability partnership with defense contractors. Three years later, the pushing it into gas eventually changed its empire to that of India the largest fuel retailer in the private sector. In 2019, he began to focus airports and is now trying to enter sectors such as data storage and financial services.

“Modi’s policy has helped business groups since Gujarat’s day, and this has contributed to the rapid growth of conglomerates such as the Adani Group,” said Indira Hirway, director of the Ahmedabad Center for Development Alternatives. “Merging corporate strategies with government priorities – this is the business in India.”