. Adani Enterprises, the flagship company of the Adani Group, said in a stock exchange filing on Friday that its board had given approval to raise 200 billion rupees by issuing new shares. It would be India’s biggest ever follow-on public share offering, Reuters reports. Adani, Asia’s richest man, has rapidly expanded his portfolio of companies since the start of the pandemic, acquiring businesses in fields ranging from cement-making to airports.
Adani, a college dropout, briefly became the world’s second richest man in September, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, overtaking Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. His fortune has grown by $51 billion so far this year, according to the index. Shares of Adani’s seven listed companies — in sectors ranging from ports to power stations — shot up between 10% and 260% in the first 10 months of the year.