Wednesday on charges of massive bribery and fraud, and a US judge has issued an arrest warrant.
Federal prosecutors said Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and six other defendants agreed to pay about $ 265 million in bribes to Indian government officials in exchange for solar supply contracts in India, which are expected to generate $2 billion in profits over 20 years. Adani was born in India in
1962, one of eight children in a family where his father was a low-level textile trader. Adani dropped out of school at the age of 16 and earned his first million rupees in the diamond business in Mumbai. In 1988, together with his two brothers, he founded Adani Enterprises, an import-export business. Since 1994, he has been involved in the port industry and entered the field of power generation in 2009.
Adani is 62 years old. According to the Forbes Billionaires List, he is currently the second richest man in India and the 17th richest man in the world , with a net worth of about $85 billion. In April 2022, Adani became the richest man in Asia with a net worth of $118 billion, ranking sixth in the global rich list. According to the official website of Adani Group, Adani Group is one of the three largest business groups in India, with 10 listed companies, covering energy, ports, logistics, mining, natural gas, defense and aviation.
Adani is also a big man in the Indian cement industry and is the second largest cement producer in India. He entered the industry in 2022 with the acquisition of Holcim's cement business in India, which acquired about 70 million tons of cement per year for $10.5 billion. Adani plans to expand its annual cement production capacity to 140 million tons by 2028. Adani has previously invested $1.6 billion to acquire Sanchi Cement and Penna Cement, and is expected to acquire an additional 21 million tons of production capacity. In mid-October
this year, it was also reported that Heidelberg Materials was in talks with Indian company Adani Group to sell its cement business in India. The deal could be worth $1.2 billion.
India is the second largest cement market in the world, and almost all of the cement produced is digested at home. The country's cement production is expected to exceed 460 million tons in fiscal year 2024. The competition in India's domestic cement market is mainly between Adani Group and Billionaire Kumar Mangalam Bira's Chaoke Cement Company.
This year, Chaoke Cement Company spent $697 million to buy 56% of the old Indian Cement Company in batches. The Indian Cement Company was founded in 1946 before India broke away from British colonial rule. In November last year, Chaoke Cement also paid US $641 million to acquire the cement business of Kesoram Industries. In order to monopolize the cement market, the
two cement giants have acquired competing companies one after another. It is not known whether the competition will end with the lawsuit of Adani Group. It is understood that on November 21, after the opening of the Indian stock market, the shares of Adani Enterprises and Adani Energy Solutions plunged by more than 20%, Adani Green Energy by 17% and Adani Port by 16%. Adani's net worth fell by more than $15 billion earlier Thursday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
