Gautam Adani: Success Story of the Founder & Chairman of Adani Group!

Gautam Adani, one of the world’s richest individuals and the founder of the Adani Group, has built a vast business empire across sectors like energy, infrastructure, and media. However, his journey has faced significant challenges, including allegations of corporate fraud, a massive stock market crash, and a recent US indictment accusing him of involvement in a $265 million bribery scheme.

Adani and his wife, Priti Adani, run the Adani Foundation as philanthropists. His philanthropic organization is headed by his wife, of which he is the President.

According to media reports, Gautam Adani's net worth in November 2024 is projected to be around $69.8 billion. According to Forbes, he is the world's 22nd richest person and India's second-richest person behind Mukesh Ambani.

In this StartupTalky story, let us learn about Gautam Adani's success story, personal life, life story, journey to success, education, Adani Group, philanthropy, and more. 

Gautam Adani Biography

Gautam Adani - Personal Life
Gautam Adani - Education
Gautam Adani - Professional Life
Gautam Adani - Adani Group
Gautam Adani - Adani Enterprise Limited
Gautam Adani - Adani Ports & SEZ Limited
Gautam Adani - Adani Power Limited
Gautam Adani - Adani Transmission
Gautam Adani - Adani Green Energy
Gautam Adani - Controversies
Gautam Adani - Philanthropist
Gautam Adani - Help During Covid Crisis

Gautam Adani - Personal Life

Gautam was born in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, to a Jain family. Shantilal, his father, was a textile entrepreneur. He, along with seven of his brothers, mother, and father, lived in the northern part of Gujarat.

He and Priti Adani have a son, Karan Adani, who is the CEO of Adani Ports & SEZ Limited. His wife, a dentist, is the Managing Trustee of the Adani Foundation. Gautam was previously nobbled and released without accruing the money in 1998. He managed to avoid the 2008 Taj Hotel Mumbai attacks by hiding in the basement.

From an early age, he was driven and determined. As a teenager, he dropped out of school due to his lack of interest in academics. He went on to Gujarat University after that but did not finish his degree. He had no intention of entering his father's textile company, despite his interest in the business.

Gautam Adani - Education

He graduated from Ahmedabad's Sheth Chimanlal Nagindas Vidyalaya school with a bachelor's degree. He then went on to Gujarat University to obtain a bachelor's degree in commerce. However, after completing his second year of college, he dropped out.

Gautam Adani - Professional Life

Gautam was fascinated by entrepreneurship, but not his father's textile company. He began working at a very young age. When he was 18, his entrepreneurial energy led him to leave Ahmedabad and relocate to Mumbai. The young man was eager to make it big despite having very little money. He worked at Mahendra Brothers in 1978 as a diamond sorter. He opened his own diamond brokerage company in Mumbai's Zaveri Bazaar after working there for 2-3 years.

His company prospered, and by the age of 20, he had amassed a million-dollar fortune. His elder brother had recently purchased a plastic plant in Ahmedabad and asked Gautam Adani to assist him in its operation. Adani moved back to Ahmedabad and began working with his brother. Gautam expanded his empire into global trade by importing polyvinyl chloride. In 1985, he started commodity trading by importing Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), a main raw material for plastic manufacturing, and traveled to South Korea to make a deal.

Gautam Adani - Adani Group

Gautam Adani founded the Adani Group in 1988 and serves as its Chairman. The company is based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. It is a commodity trading business with the flagship of Adani Exports Limited. The diverse business of the Group includes energy, resources, logistics, real estate, financial services, agribusiness, defense, and aerospace.

He has a 32.90% stake in Adani Ports & SEZ Limited, a 36.86% stake in Adani Power, a 50.29% stake in Adani Enterprises, and a 75% stake in Adani Transmission Limited. The Group holds an annual revenue of about INR 3.09 lakh crore (US$37 billion) for 2024, operating in 50 countries across 70 locations.

Gautam Adani - Adani Enterprise Limited

Gautam established Adani Exports Limited in 1988, which has since evolved into Adani Enterprises Limited, the Adani Group's holding company. Initially, the firm dealt with agricultural and power commodities.

In 1991, he began trading metals, textiles, and agro-products in order to expand his company. The shift in trade came as a result of the start of economic liberalization policies, and it proved lucrative for the group. Adani was able to quickly grow his company due to a favorable market climate.

Gautam Adani - Adani Ports & SEZ Limited

In October 1998, the business opened its doors at the Mundra Port. In February 2001, the group was given the right to operate and expand the Mundra Port, which is located on the Navinal Island in the Kutch area, for 30 years through a Concession Agreement with the Gujarat Government and the Gujarat Maritime Board. Mundra Port surpassed JNPT in August 2020 to become India's largest container port.

Currently, the company is the largest private multi-port operator in the world. The port has a cargo capacity of 210 million tonnes per year, making it India's largest private-sector port.

Karan Adani, the Chief Executive Officer of APSEZ, is in charge of the venture. Port management, logistics, and the special economic zone are among the company's activities. Mundra, Dahej, and Hazira in Gujarat; Dhamra in Odisha; Kattupalli in Tamil Nadu; and Vizhinjam in Kerala are the ports where the business runs.

Gautam Adani - Adani Power Limited

Gautam created Adani Power Limited, another Adani Group portal, in 1996. With a capacity of 4620 Mega Watt, Adani Power is the country's largest private thermal power plant operator. He bought Abbot Point Port in Australia and Carmichael Coal in Queensland between 2009 and 2012.

It is a privately owned thermal power plant with a capacity of 12,450 megawatts (MW). It also runs a 40-megawatt solar plant in Naliya, Bitta, Kutch, Gujarat. Jharkhand is home to Adani Power, which is building a 1,600 MW plant. The governments of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Punjab have signed long-term power purchase agreements with the company totaling 9,153 MW.

Adani Power made a cumulative profit of INR 634.64 Crore in the 4th quarter, which ended on March 31, 2019. The company posted a consolidated net loss of INR 653.25 Crore in the previous financial year.

The business has received several honors and accolades. At IPPAI's 18th Regulators & Policymakers Retreat in 2017, it was awarded 'the Most Innovative Young Power Professional'. In Singapore, CSR Works International rewarded the firm for best sustainability reporting in Asia, with the support of the British Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian High Commission.

Gautam Adani - Adani Transmission

Adani Transmission Limited, headquartered in Ahmedabad, India, is a power transmission company. It is currently one of the largest private-sector power transmission companies in India. The company operates a total network of 12,200 circuit kilometers as of July 2020, with more than 3,200 circuit kilometers under construction at various points.

Gautam Adani created Adani Transmission in December 2015 after separating his ten-year-old transmission company from Adani Enterprises. The company became the primary custodian for over 3800 circuit kilometers of transmission lines originating from the Mundra Thermal Power Station, linking Mundra–Dehgam, Mundra–Mohindergarh, and Tirora–Warora, at the time of its establishment.

Gautam Adani - Adani Green Energy

Adani Green Energy Limited was formed on January 23, 2015, under the Companies Act 2013. AGEL and Inox Wind collaborated to construct a 20 MW wind power project in Lahori, Madhya Pradesh, during the company's early days. AGEL also purchased Inox Wind's 50 MW wind energy project in Kutch's Dayapar village. The project was conceived by the latter after it won capacity bids for wind power projects linked to the National Grid from the Solar Energy Corporation of India.

With a total project portfolio of 13,990 MW, Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL) is one of India's largest renewable energy companies. AGEL is part of the Adani Group's promise to give India a richer, safer, and more environmentally friendly future.

The Company creates, installs, owns, operates, and maintains utility-scale grid-connected solar and wind farm projects, all of which are driven by the Group's philosophy of "Growth with Goodness." The electricity produced is distributed to federal and state government agencies, as well as government-backed businesses.

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Gautam Adani - Controversies

• Gautam Adani was charged in New York for his involvement in an alleged bribery and fraud scheme worth billions of dollars, according to US prosecutors on November 20, 2024.
• Adani, who leads a large business empire in sectors like coal, airports, cement, and media, has faced serious allegations of corporate fraud and a major stock crash in recent years.
• In 2023, Adani's businesses lost $150 billion in market value after a report by short-seller Hindenburg Research accused the group of major corporate fraud. The report claimed that Adani Group had been involved in stock manipulation and accounting fraud for many years.

Gautam Adani - Philanthropist

Gautam is the president of the Adani Foundation, which he established in 1996. The Adani Group funds the organization, which is active in Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, and Odisha.

The Adani Foundation, which is run by the Adani Group, is active in a lot of philanthropic work. In addition to Gujarat, the foundation works in several states, investing in education, sustainable economic resources, and expanding rural development, among other things. Priti Adani runs the Adani Vidya Mandir in Ahmedabad, a school that accepts only children whose parents earn less than INR 1 lakh per year.

The foundation has a special program to assist fishermen, and it offers financial assistance to 500 fishermen from the coastal taluka for the purchase of fishing equipment. The children of the fishermen are given educational opportunities.

In the year 2012, Adani Foundation Group partnered with IndiaSkills, vocational education joint venture, and City & Guilds, one of the best brands of work-related evaluation and qualifications, to open a skills training site in Gujarat that would offer courses in commerce, hospitality, defence, renovation, and engineering.

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Gautam Adani - Help During Covid Crisis

Gautam Adani also donated INR. 100 Crore to the Prime Minister CARES FUND through the Adani Group's portal to combat the Coronavirus crisis. He made a donation of INR 5 Crore to the Gujarat Chief Minister's Relief Fund and INR 1 Crore to the Maharashtra Chief Minister's Relief Fund.

Four ISO cryogenic tanks loaded with 80 metric tonnes of liquid medical oxygen were imported from Dammam, Saudi Arabia, to Mundra, Gujarat, by Gautam Adani's diversified conglomerate Adani group. Linde Saudi Arabia has agreed to provide the community with 5,000 medical-grade oxygen cylinders. Adani said on Twitter that his company provides 1,500 cylinders of medical oxygen per day to wherever they are required in Gujarat's Kutch.

Conclusion

Adani's knack for business can be seen in all of his endeavors. He has his hands in almost every industry imaginable and has become the very best in them be it logistics or real estate. He had his mind set on being an entrepreneur from a very young age - in his actual teenage years at a time when it wasn't regarded as being cool. And he came from a very ordinary family and carved himself a very extraordinary life indeed. There's a lot to learn from his business moves!

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FAQs

Who is Gautam Adani?

Gautam Adani is an Indian businessman and philanthropist who founded the Adani Group, a multinational conglomerate specializing in port development and operations in India.

What is the net worth of Gautam Adani?

Gautam Adani's net worth is estimated at $69.8 billion as of November 2024.

When was the Adani Group founded?

Adani established the Adani Group in 1988, which is headquartered in Ahmedabad, India.

What is Gautam Adani education?

Gautam Adani was educated at Sheth Chimanlal Nagindas Vidyalaya School in Ahmedabad. He then enrolled for a bachelor's degree in Commerce at Gujarat University. However, Adani dropped out after the second year because he was interested in doing business there in his father's textile business.

How many Gautam Adani founded organizations are there?

Adani Group consists of 10 publicly listed entities.