Indian Tycoon Adani Fleetingly Named As World's Second Richest

Indian tycoon Gautam Adani on Friday fleetingly surpassed LVMH chairman and chief executive officer Bernard Arnault to become the world's second-richest person with a net worth of $155.5 billion, according to Forbes’ Real-Time billionaire rankings.

Arnault, however, later pipped Adani to secure the second position on the rankings back. The Adani Group owns India’s largest private seaport and airport operator as well as a huge coalmine in Australia. Moreover, the group has recently forayed into petrochemicals, cement, copper refining and data centres.

Adani, 60, was born to a middle-class family in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. He dropped out of university before starting an export business in 1988.

Adani had become the world’s third-richest person with an estimated $137 billion fortune on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index in August.