India’s infrastructure king: Adani sees world’s top wealth surge

Billionaire Gautam Adani is investing in airports, data centres and defence, seen by India’s Modi as economically vital.

After spending two decades building a business empire centered around coal, Indian billionaire Gautam Adani is now looking beyond the fossil fuel to cement his group’s future. His ambitious plans are getting a boost from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Adani has emerged as India’s infrastructure king, diversifying from mines, ports and power plants into airports, data centers and defense — sectors Modi considers crucial to meeting India’s economic goals. Investors are rewarding the pivot, betting the tycoon’s strategy of dovetailing his interests with the government’s development program will pay off. The group’s six listed units added a combined $79 billion to their market value in the past year at the height of a pandemic, capping the best 12 months in their history. That’s the most after the nation’s two biggest business empires, Tata group and Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd. Blue-chip names including French oil giant Total SE and Warburg Pincus LLC have plowed money into Adani’s companies.