Adani, the world’s sixth richest man, has increased his fortune by nearly $30 billion this year, more than any other billionaire. His net worth of $106 billion is less than half that of Tesla Inc. co-founder Elon Musk, but it is $10 billion higher than that of Ambani. While both would like markets to reward them for writing India’s renewable energy future, what’s ticking for them right now is all the polluting stuff that’s in short supply: coal, palm oil, gasoline, and construction materials. Adani is favoured by investors simply because he is the more daring of the two.
With his $27 billion fundraising in the middle of the 2020 Covid-19 disruption — first from the likes of Facebook (now known as Meta Platforms Inc.) and Alphabet Inc. for his digital business and then from Silver Lake Partners, KKR & Co. Inc. and others for his retail chain — Ambani, who turned 65 last month, was the toast of the global M&A market. Adani, who will celebrate his 60th birthday next month as India’s newly anointed cement king after purchasing Holcim Ltd.’s business in the country for $10.5 billion, appears to have inherited that zeal.
According to Bloomberg News, Adani has spent $17 billion on 32 acquisitions in the last year and shows no signs of slowing down, despite the fact that his listed companies’ combined net debt is nearly $20 billion, or more than four times annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda). In a tightening global interest-rate cycle, that’s a lot of leverage to carry.
Compare this to Reliance Industries Ltd NSE 1.00 percent, Ambani’s flagship. Its planned annual capital expenditure is estimated to be $13 billion. However, as competition in India’s telecoms market has dwindled, the data Ambani sells has become more expensive. The state-mandated price cap on the natural gas he produces in India has risen by 62 percent. The world’s largest refinery complex, in Jamnagar, is benefiting from a fuel shortage. All of this could keep Reliance’s net debt-to-Ebitda ratio at 0.7 this fiscal year, according to Fitch Ratings, which rates the conglomerate’s foreign-currency creditworthiness at BBB, one notch above India’s sovereign debt.
Ambani’s fortress-like balance sheet, however, isn’t exactly igniting the stock market: The Reliance NSE 0.96 percent stock, which reached a high of 29 times forward 12-month earnings in 2020, is now trading at a multiple of 21. Adani Enterprises Ltd NSE -0.05 percent, which closed the valuation gap with Reliance around Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reelection in 2019, now trades at a PE ratio of 124.
