Gautam Adani replaces Mukesh Ambani as Asia’s richest person

• Gautam Adani ranks first among top 10 wealthiest people in Asia and India.
• Holds net worth of roughly $600 million more than Mukesh Ambani.
• Taps into basket of newly emerging sectors such as renewable and other green energy projects. 

NEW DELHI: India's conglomerate Adani Group founder and chairman Gautam Adani has surpassed Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries Ltd to become the richest person in Asia, The News reported, citing the latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index stats.

Gautam Adani is now one of the top 10 wealthiest people in the world and has a net worth of $88.5 billion, which is roughly $600 million more than Mukesh Ambani's net worth.

Ambani's wealth saw a year-to-date fall of about $2.07 billion, while Adani's increased by about $12 billion YTD, which made the former, the second richest person in India and Asia and 11th richest in the entire world. Ambani’s total net worth is $87.9 billion, as of February 8.

Ambani ranked first in the list of the wealthiest person in India and Asia in November of last year, with Gautam Adani trailing him by about $2.2 billion.

In the last one year, Reliance Industries' share price has risen by about 18.50%. It is trading at Rs2,312.75 a share as of Tuesday morning. In comparison, Adani Enterprises Ltd has soared over 170% in the last one year and was trading at Rs1,741 on Tuesday morning.

Gautam Adani has tapped into a basket of newly emerging sectors such as renewable and other green energy projects. Some Adani-owned firms such as Adani Total Gas Ltd and Adani Transmission Ltd have performed much better than others in the last year, with the former jumping by about 370% and the latter rising by 250%. Interestingly, Adani’s FMCG firm Adani Wilmar, which listed on the benchmark indices Tuesday, listed at a 4% discount in a tepid debut.

“The Adani Group has spotted and entered all the happening sectors at the right time, which has appealed to a select band of foreign portfolio investors,” Deepak Jasani, head of retail research at brokerage firm HDFC Securities Ltd told Bloomberg News. “The sectors are capital-intensive and the company has faced little difficulty in raising funds to expand,” he added.

Both the billionaires, who have bagged profits through oil and fossil-fuel intensive sectors, have been investing in a renewable energy push. Adani has committed to invest $70 billion this decade to help his company while Ambani has committed $10 billion over the next three years as part of a larger $76 billion spend plan in renewables, according to the Bloomberg report.