Indian billionaire Gautam Adani's group plans $120 billion investment over five years

Adani Group, the Indian ports-to-power conglomerate controlled by billionaire Gautam Adani, plans to invest more than $120 billion in capital expenditure over the next five years, a spending push aimed at doubling the size of its asset base.

The group will spend about $20 billion a year, Pranav Adani, a director at Adani Enterprises Ltd. and a nephew of the chairman, said in an interview published on Nov. 10. About 70% of the money will go to energy, roughly 20% to transport and logistics, and about 10% to adjacent businesses including cement, copper and aluminum.

The group expects the program to lift its asset base to ₹18 trillion ($189 billion) and to generate core earnings of ₹2.6 trillion to ₹3 trillion ($27.3 billion to $31.5 billion) over the five-year period.

The new figure is larger than the $100 billion five-year investment the group had previously outlined, and it puts energy at the center of the build-out. Adani's businesses span coal trading and mining, power generation and transmission, renewable energy, airports, ports, cement and data centers.

A European push

The investment plan comes days after Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd., the group's port operator and India's largest private port company, agreed on Nov. 5 to buy all of Netherlands-based Evos B.V. at an enterprise value of €2.56 billion ($2.87 billion).

Evos is Europe's second-largest independent operator of liquid storage terminals, holding fuel, chemicals and other bulk liquids at ports. The deal gives Adani Ports its largest foothold in Europe and adds storage capacity to a business that has grown mostly through container and cargo terminals.

The group has also been expanding its data center business at home. An Adani Enterprises joint venture said on Nov. 8 that it had completed the purchase of the Vizag Mega Data Center Park in Andhra Pradesh, a deal valued at ₹10.9 billion ($114.5 million) when it was announced on Nov. 6.

Adani Enterprises, the group's flagship, closed at ₹2,706 on the BSE on Nov. 9, up about 21% since the start of the year.

Adani in Africa

Adani's ambitions abroad have reached East Africa. Adani Ports runs Container Terminal 2 at Tanzania's Dar es Salaam port under a 30-year concession signed in 2024.

The group's plans in Kenya ran into trouble the same year. In November 2024, Kenyan President William Ruto canceled a proposed deal for Adani to upgrade and run Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, along with a separate power transmission contract, after U.S. prosecutors charged Gautam Adani and other executives in a bribery case. The group denied the allegations.

From commodities trader to conglomerate

Gautam Adani, 64, dropped out of college and started out as a diamond sorter in Mumbai before founding a commodities trading business in Ahmedabad in 1988. He built the group around the Mundra port in Gujarat, which grew into India's largest commercial port, and later expanded into power, airports, cement and green energy.

Forbes ranks him among Asia's richest people, with a fortune built largely on his stakes in the group's listed companies.

Figures were converted at ₹95.2 to the dollar and €1 to $1.12.