Decoding Gautam Adani’s inner circle

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Editor's note: Last week, the Adani group completed its $6.5 billion acquisition of Ambuja Cements and ACC from Switzerland's Holcim, becoming the country’s second largest cement maker. As part of the deal, Gautam Adani, the billionaire chairman of the group, also made changes to the boards of the two cement makers.  Gautam Adani took over as chairman of Ambuja Cements.Adani’s elder son, Karan, who is also the chief executive officer of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, was named chairman of ACC and director of Ambuja Cements.Ajay Kapur was appointed CEO and whole-time director of Ambuja Cements. Kapur, who worked for 26 years at Ambuja before moving to Anil Agrawal-led Vedanta Resources in 2019, had joined Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone in June this year.Vinod Bahety, who headed the Adani group’s mergers and acquisitions team, was appointed chief financial officer of both Ambuja and ACC.ACC chief executive Sridhar Balakrishnan remained an exception; he continues in his current role. Vinay Prakash, who has been part of the Adani group for the last two decades and heads the coal and mining business, was …