In the last two years, his group has gained control of seven airports and almost a quarter of India’s air traffic, made rapid strides in renewable energy capacity addition, won a contract to co-develop a port terminal in Sri Lanka and bought ports in India.
NE BUSINESS BUREAU
MUMBAI, APR 6
Billionaire Gautam Adani’s ports-to-energy conglomerate has become India’s third group to cross US $100 billion in market capitalisation with shares of four of its six listed companies soaring to an all-time high on Tuesday.
The total market cap of Adani Group’s six listed companies at the close of trading on Tuesday was Rs 7.84 lakh crore or US $106.8 billion, according to stock exchange data.
Adani Group is the third Indian conglomerate to cross the US $100 billion market cap mark after Tata Group and Reliance Industries Ltd.
After starting out as a commodities trader in the late 1980s, Gautam Adani has over two decades built an empire that now spans from mines, ports and power plants to airports, data centre, city gas and defence.
In the last two years, his group has gained control of seven airports and almost a quarter of India’s air traffic, made rapid strides in renewable energy capacity addition, won a contract to co-develop a port terminal in Sri Lanka and bought ports in India.
In recent weeks, the group has acquired a stake in Gangavaram port, commissioned wind power plant in Gujarat, discovered natural gas reserves off the Mumbai coast, acquired solar projects, bought a power transmission project from Essel Infra projects and signed a pact to develop 1 gigawatt of data centre capacity in India.
Adani Ports controls 30 percent of the nation’s port industry and has French energy giant Total as a partner in its renewable energy and city gas distribution business.
Adani Green is targeting 25 gigawatts of renewable capacity by 2025.
According to BSE data, Adani Enterprises closed at an all-time high of Rs 1,225.55 on the BSE on Tuesday, up 7.67 percent over the previous day’s close.
Adani Total Gas touched a record high of Rs 1,248 before closing at Rs 1,204.35, while Adani Transmission jumped 5 per cent to Rs 1,147 before settling at Rs 1,109.90.
Adani Ports gained 12.84 percent to end at an all-time high of Rs 837.45.
Adani Power rose 5 percent to Rs 98.40, while Adani Green Energy gained 2.2 percent to Rs 1,194.55.
Except for Adani Green and Adani Power, the shares of other listed firms touched a record high.
Tata Group’s current market cap is around US $242 billion while RIL m-cap is at US $171 billion.
Five of the Adani Group firms have a market cap of over Rs 1 lakh crore, while one – Adani Power- has an m-cap of Rs 37,952.28 crore.
