India on Track to Becoming a $25 Trillion-$30 Trillion Economy by 2050, Says Gautam Adani

Within the next decade, the economy will add a trillion dollars to its GDP every 18 months, he says at AGM of Adani Enterprises

When I founded the Adani Group over three decades ago, I never imagined it would become one of the largest conglomerates of the country. It was on the 12 September, 1994, that Adani Enterprises, then known as Adani Exports, launched its IPO.

I had just turned 32.

Today, as I reflect on the past, I am grateful to so many who enabled the company to come this far. Along this journey, if there is one characteristic that continued to define us – it has been our resilience.

On the eve of Republic Day, a U.S.-based short-seller published a report just as we were planning to launch the largest Follow-on Public Offering in India’s history. It was a combination of targeted misinformation and discredited allegations, the majority of them dating from 2004 to 2015. This report was a deliberate and malicious attempt aimed at damaging our reputation and generating profits through a short-term drive-down of our stock prices. Subsequently, despite a fully subscribed FPO, we decided to withdraw and return the money to investors. Consequently, the Supreme Court of India constituted an Expert Committee, whose report was made public in May 2023; it did not find any regulatory failure. With SEBI yet to submit its report, we remain confident of our governance and disclosure standards.

While economic cycles are getting increasingly hard to forecast, there is little doubt that, India, the world’s fifth largest economy, will become the world’s third largest economy well before 2030 and the second largest by 2050. Our nation’s demographic dividend is expected to drive consumption and accelerate the growth of a tax paying society at a record pace. The United Nation’s Population Fund projects that India’s median age will be just 38 years even in 2050. Over this period, India’s population is expected to grow by approximately 15% to 1.6 billion, but the per capita income will accelerate by over 700% to about $16,000. On a purchasing power parity basis, this per capita metric will be 3 to 4 times higher.

Following independence, it took us 58 years to get to our first trillion dollars of GDP, 12 years to get to the next trillion and just 5 years for the third trillion. I anticipate that within the next decade, India will start adding a trillion dollars to its GDP every 18 months. This puts us on track to be a $25-$30 trillion economy by 2050 and drive India’s stock market capitalization to over $40 trillion.

Our balance sheet, assets, and operating cashflows continue to get stronger and are healthier than ever before. Our key achievements are:

• The Adani Group set new financial performance records for FY 22-23.
• Total EBITDA grew by 36% to Rs 57,219 crore.
• Total income grew by 85% to Rs 2,62,499 crore.
• Total PAT grew by 82% to Rs 23,509 crore.
• The Group’s accelerating cashflow further improved our net debt to run rate EBIDTA ratio from 3.2x to 2.8x.
• Our data centre JV AdaniConneX is on course to set up 350 MW capacity in the short term – and 1 GW capacity in the medium term. This is by far the largest order book in India.
• Adani Green Energy Limited commissioned the world’s largest hybrid solar-wind project of 2.14 GW in Rajasthan. We are building the largest hybrid renewables park in the world in Khavda. It will be the most complex and ambitious project that we have ever executed. Spread over 72,000 acres, this project will be capable of generating 20 GW of green energy.
• APSEZ continues to be amongst the most profitable port operators globally with port EBITDA margin of 70%. In 12-24 months, it will commission India’s largest transshipment hub in Vizhinjam, and a port in Colombo.
• Adani Power Limited successfully commissioned the 1.6 GW ultra-supercritical Godda power plant and is supplying power to Bangladesh. This marks our entry into transnational power projects. In the domestic sector, APL is adding a 1.6 GW ultra-supercritical project in Mahan, Madhya Pradesh.
• ATL’s revenues are anticipated to expand by 18% and cross Rs 4,000 crore in annuity income. The Mumbai distribution business achieved reliability of 99.99% and was ranked the No.1 discom by the Union Ministry of Power. ATL will also take Mumbai to 60% renewable power making it the first mega city in the world to achieve over 50% power from solar & wind.
• Adani Total Gas Limited expanded access to clean cooking fuel to 1,24,000 households this year with a 46% increase in revenue to Rs 4,683 crore.
• The Adani Group continues to attract global investment partners aligned to our long-term approach of building and operating world-class assets. In March 2023, we successfully executed a secondary transaction with GQG Partners of $1.87 billion despite volatile market conditions.

Our country is now the most exciting land of opportunities. We have always expressed our belief in our growth with goodness philosophy and our track record speaks for itself. Our customers speak for us, our investors speak for us, our shareholders speak for us, and our results speak for us.