Indian Billionaire Gautam Adani overtakes Mukesh Ambani as Asia’s richest person

Indian Billionaire Gautam Adani overtakes Mukesh Ambani as Asia’s richest person

Gautam Adani, the Indian billionaire who turned a small commodities trading business into a conglomerate spanning ports, mines and green energy, is now Asia's richest person. The 59-year-old mogul's net worth reached $88.5 billion on Monday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, eclipsing fellow countryman Mukesh Ambani's $87.9 billion. With an almost $12 billion jump in his personal fortune, Adani is the world's biggest wealth-gainer this year. The coal magnate - whose controversial Australian mine project drew flak from climate activists including Greta Thunberg - has increasingly looked beyond the fossil fuel for expansion. He's moving into renewable energy, airports, data centers and defense contracting - priorities Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also considers crucial to nation-building and meeting the country's long-term economic goals. "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," said Deepak Jasani, head of retail research at Mumbai-based brokerage HDFC Securities Ltd. "The sectors are capital-intensive and the company has faced little difficulty in raising funds to expand." Some of Adani Group's listed stocks have soared more than 600% in the past two years on bets his push into