India Inc creates record wealth in last five years

Chennai: Two Adani group companies - Adani Enterprises and Adani Transmission - have uprooted the traditional leader Reliance Industries in annual wealth creation in 2022 so far, while the top 100 of them created a massive Rs 92.2 lakh crore of wealth during 2017-22, according to a report.

However, Reliance Industries has smashed all records to emerge as the largest wealth creator during the five-year period ending March 2022, says the leading brokerage Motilal Oswal in its 27th annual wealth creation study.

The Gautam Adani group companies have been rallying to dizzying heights in the year as the group snapped up many assets and diversified into newer areas. The rally was so high that Adani on September 16 became the second richest person in the world with $155.7 billion, only second to Elon Musk who had $253.5 billion of net worth, according to the Forbes real-time billionaires list. The spike was following the stocks of Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports and Adani Transmission hitting record highs on that day. Adani, who owns 75 per cent each in these three companies, has added more than $70 billion to his fortune in 2022 in mid-September.

In February, he overtook Mukesh Ambani as the richest Asian, became a centi-billionaire in April and left behind Microsoft's Bill Gates as the world's fourth-richest person last month. He also owns 37 per cent of Adani Total Gas, 65 per cent of Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone, and 61 per cent of Adani Green Energy.

As against this, Ambani was pushed to the distant eighth slot with a net worth of $92.3 billion. Reliance Industries, Adani Transmission and Adani Enterprises are the biggest, fastest and the most consistent wealth creators, respectively between 2017 and 2022. Adani Enterprises and Adani Transmission are also the top all-round wealth creators, said the report.

Technology sector has been the largest wealth creating sector between 2017 and 2022, followed by the financial sector, which coming out of despair should continue to dominate wealth creation in the foreseeable future, the report added.