A May 6, 2014 report of livemint.com detailing what led to a $4.1 billion wealth rise of Gautam Adani in association with Narendra Modi was a preview of how the billionaire’s relationship with Modi will fuel up his journey ahead.
8 years down the line 2022 alone Adani added a whopping $61 billion dollars more than anyone across the globe and to no surprise today Gautam Adani has surpassed LVMH co-founder Bernard Arnault to become the 3rd richest person in the world with a net worth of $137 billion becoming the first Asian to achieve this feat.
During this journey, Adani cornered gazillion fame to his credit including a 23 times hike in his wealth since the first ever COVID-induced lockdown which pushed millions into poverty, while Adani grew more than anyone else including Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
But how did a 16-year-old college dropout, who moved out from Gujarat to try his hands on the diamond trade in Mumbai go on to establish an empire whose listed companies at present hold the honor of being the market leader in the respective division?
The Beginning: -
In 1988, the Adani Group was born when the 59-year-old college dropout set up the group’s flagship company Adani Enterprises to import and export commodities.
With a core philosophy of ‘nation-building, the group is widely lauded for its scale and execution. Gradually over the due course of time, Adani went on to expand its reach and horizons and has at present diversified into two dozen businesses, many of which are among the largest in India.
Gautam Adani and the Modi factor:
The story of Adani’s association with Modi dates back even before the latter’s elevation as the Chief Minister of Gujarat.
But it came to light only in 2003 when Adani with his fellow business tycoons in Gujarat made Modi’s visionary Global Investor Summit project a grand success.
Adani’s Modi connection has never been after the screens, the extent of which can be seen from the fact that when Modi’s name was announced as the NDA’s Prime Minister’s face, the cumulative wealth of Adani from his entire business prospect grew by more than three times to $6 billion in May 2014 in under 8 months from September 2012.
The solemn corporate-politics connection became clear enough giving political pundits and commentators to craft their version to light when Narendra Modi was seen campaigning for the 2014 general elections pan India in the private jet-owned billionaire friend Gautam Adani.
Moreover, Modi took the same flight to Delhi after emerging victorious to script history by leading BJP to claim the majority alone in the Lok Sabha.
The Modi-Adani connect witnessed a bulk load of criticism and attack from opposing parties and politicians however a report from the central autonomous body in 2012 cleared the doubts about how the political consolidation of one benefitted the other.
India’s national auditor, a constitutional body, 2012 said in a public comment that Adani Power Ltd, operator of the world’s largest coal-fired power plant, received an undue benefit from the state government, which failed to collect the full penalty for a breach in the terms of a power purchase agreement.
The story doesn’t end here Narendra Modi’s every single ambitious project about which he highlights in India’s growth story across the length and breadth of the country or abroad has Adani’s hands on it.
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Adani has emerged as India's infrastructure king, diversifying from mines, ports, and power plants into airports, data centers, and defense the sectors Modi considers crucial to meeting India's economic goals.
The Giant Adani Empire:
Starting with its flagship Adani Enterprises in 1988 with exporting and importing commodities after around three decades at present Gautam Adani-led Adani group is into around two dozen entities.
The group's top 7 listed companies hold a cumulative market capitalization of over 19, 77,870 crores.
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone is India’s biggest private port operator, with its 13 ports and terminals dotting both eastern and western coastlines.
Adani Enterprises is India’s biggest coal trader, the biggest coal mining contractor as well the biggest private airport operator, with eight airports in its kitty.
Adani Green Energy is one of the world’s largest solar power developers.
Adani Transmission is the largest private sector transmission and distribution company in India.
While Adani Wilmar holds the reputation as the country’s biggest edible oils brand.
Adani Total Gas operates the largest city gas distribution business in India, and at last, Adani Power is the largest private thermal power producer in India.
The infrastructure empire is also present in solar manufacturing, logistics, industrial land, defense and aerospace, fruits, data centers, road and rail, real estate, and lending.
But is everything hunky dory for the Adani group? The answer to this is well yes and no together. A week back CreditSights a unit of rating agency Fitch in its report marked the Gautam Adani-led group as "Deeply overleveraged," implying the company is heavily under debt.
Adani group is largely performing above the fine standards with the shares of its listed companies continuously marking improvements.
However, the experts believe that in business you grow and fall and the problem with Adani group might soar if in case the company falls into any form of financial catastrophe. Soon after the News broke out the Adani group’s listed companies suffered a combined hit of 94,000 crores.
Avinash Gorakshakar, Director of Research at Profitmart gave a complete analysis of the development while speaking to a digital news platform providing a complete picture in association with the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance group whose current debt stands much below that of the Adani group.