Gautam Adani is one of India’s richest businessmen and chairman of the Adani Group. He ranks second in the list of richest Indians with a net worth of $84 billion. In his life journey, he faces many ups and downs like dropping out of college getting big contracts, being included in political controversies and finally getting into the list of richest Indians. Discover the inspiring journey of Adani’s rise to prominence in our article: Adani Success Story: From Dropout to Richest Businessman.

Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani Group, is an esteemed Indian entrepreneur and one of the wealthiest individuals in the country, with a net worth of $84 billion. Despite facing numerous challenges and controversies throughout his career, including dropping out of college and political entanglements, Adani persevered and emerged as one of India’s most successful businessmen.

Early Life And Dropping Out of College

Gautam Adani was born on June 24, 1962, into a Gujarati Family. His father had his own textile business. His passion was not in academics but in doing business so he dropped out of college in the second year and started his entrepreneurship journey.

Beginning of Entrepreneurship 

In 1978 he moved to Mumbai and became a diamond merchant by partnering with his cousins Girish & Prakash. He nurtures his skills in diamond trading, diamond sorting, risk capacity, etc which helps him in making good money out of it. 

But the diamond business didn’t go well later due to the high capital deal getting squared off. This failure gives Adani a taste of the business’s unpredictable consequences and challenges. 

Joining Brother’s Business

In 1982, life took an unexpected turn when his brother called him to help run his plastic factory, which he had recently brought near Ahmedabad.

Due to the shortage of raw materials at that time, the Indian government imposes heavy import duties making it difficult for businessmen to make profits.

But in 1985, the government liberalized import policies. Adani grabbed this opportunity and established a trading company which soon imported polyvinyl chloride for his brother’s business needs and also other goods like plastics, chemicals, rubber, electronics & machinery for small-scale industries.

All this helps him make international contacts and increases his knowledge of global trade & different commodities.

In 1988, adani became a big player in imports & exports which supplies polyvinyl chloride to big industries, and became one of the largest importers of coals in India.

Contract of Mundra Port

With foreign investments coming into India, the Gujarat government is transforming its ports to attract new businesses. In 1995, the government began selling its ports to private companies which Adani got the Mundra Port to develop.

Adani swiftly realizes this opportunity to be a big game-changer in his life as India’s infrastructure is about to be made and evolved. So he highly focused on building ports and setting up logistics infrastructure, with all these efforts Mundra Port became operational in 1998. 

 With highly efficient ports & logistics, Adani company grew exponentially in later years.

Fact: Mundra Port is India’s largest private port.

Entering New Businesses

In later years, adani entered various new businesses like green energy, coal mining, Adani Wilmar (multinational conglomerate food company), cement industry, total gas & power sectors, etc.

With his right decisions & perseverance, Adani successfully took these companies to IPO & helped India’s economy.

Gaining Contracts for All 6 Airports

In 2019, adani grabbed the contracts of all 6 Airports in metro cities like Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram & Mangalore for 50 years in a public-private partnership with AAI (Airports Authority of India).

According to some sources, By these contracts, Adani will be the Third Largest Airport Operator in India.

Large Acquisitions & Investments

Gautam Adani believes in acquiring companies that have some brand value & a good reputation in the market which later expand into big money-making machines.

One of the most expensive and biggest acquisitions is the acquisition of Ambuja & ACC Cements in which Adani will hold 63.15% in Ambuja Cements & 56.69% stake in ACC Cements. With this acquisition, Adani became India’s second-largest cement manufacturer with a capacity of 67.5 MPTA. Acquisition price is still undisclosed.

In 2023, Adani bought a 64.72% stake in NDTV worth 602 crore rupees through its indirect subsidiary RRPR Holdings. Through this Adani group entered into a News Media sector.

Adani also acquires a 25-acre plot from Finolex in Pune for $56 million to build Data Centres in India.

Adani Group also plans to invest Rs 80,000 crore in FY25 in various sectors like energy, airports, roads, & data centers, etc.

Adani Green Energy Limited invested about Rs 1.5 Lakh crore to develop a 30GW renewable energy plant in Kutch of Gujarat which becomes the world’s largest power plant in terms of area covered. It covered almost almost 5 times the size of Paris.

You can read more about Kutch project here

Political and Environment Controversies

Adani’s businesses have continued to grow exponentially in the last two decades and all these years Adani will always be in the controversies & news related to political or environmental issues.

We all well know that Adani & Prime Minister Narender Modi are very close to each other. Even when Narender Modi won the prime minister elections in May 2014, Modi used Adani’s private jet to fly to New Delhi.

Or if we go back in time when Adani got the Mundra port project, the Gujarat High Court claims that the Adani group illegally used the special economic zone near the port area.

In recent times, when Adani got contracts for all six airports & built the largest six-road lane project worth 1300 crore. Many politicians including opposing party leaders Rahul Gandhi & Arvind Kejriwal argue that the BJP government favors the Adani group in every sector & increases crony capitalism in India.

Also, Adani coal mine project in Australia is in a very big controversy due to its environmental impacts on the Great Barrier Reef, water usage, carbon emissions, and it causing harm to many endangered species. 

Hinderberg Allegations on Adani Group

In 2023, Hindenburg allegedly accused Adani of brazen stock manipulations and fraudulent activities. With all these allegations Adani Group lost more than $150 billion in the stock market.

Hindenburg also accuses Adani of misusing government tax heavens & doing money laundering by multiple offshore companies.

However, adani bravely survived this attack and increased his net worth again from $46 billion in Feb 2023 to $84 billion in Feb 2024.

His determination & strong willpower helped the Adani Group continue to grow even when facing a big disaster like Hindenberg’s research.

There were many times when politicians & big players tried to pull him down, but he didn’t take them seriously. And always experimenting with new businesses like Data Centers, Airports, Renewable Energy, etc.

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