Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has regained the title of Asia’s richest person after a sharp rally in shares of his conglomerate added billions of dollars to his fortune in a single trading session.
According to Forbes, Adani’s net worth surged by nearly $2.5 billion on Friday to reach $89.2 billion, overtaking fellow Indian industrialist Mukesh Ambani, whose wealth currently stands at $88 billion. Japanese technology investor Masayoshi Son, founder of SoftBank Group, slipped to third place in Asia with an estimated fortune of $87 billion amid a downturn in Japanese equity markets.
The development is particularly significant for Bangladesh, where Adani Power supplies nearly 1,500 megawatts of electricity from its 1,600-megawatt coal-fired plant in Jharkhand, eastern India. The cross-border power project has become an important component of Bangladesh’s electricity supply network.
Friday’s gains were led by Adani Green Energy, whose shares climbed 6.9 per cent during the session. Stocks of the group’s transmission, ports, holding and thermal power businesses also posted strong gains, taking the combined market capitalisation of the conglomerate’s six listed companies to around $191 billion.
Market analysts said investor confidence in the Adani Group has improved significantly following a major legal setback for US prosecutors last month. The United States Department of Justice withdrew a high-profile fraud case against Adani, helping fuel a broader recovery in the group’s share prices. Since the case was dropped, Adani’s personal fortune has reportedly increased by around $10 billion.
The charges, filed in November last year, alleged that Adani and several associates paid $250 million in bribes to Indian officials to secure solar power contracts and later concealed the payments while raising funds from international investors. Adani and his co-accused consistently denied the allegations.