Mukesh Ambani, Asia's richest with a fortune of $85.5 billion, according to Forbes real-time billionaires list, has forgone his compensation from India's most valued firm, Reliance Industries (RIL), for fiscal 2020-2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

After slashing debt, raising capital, and onboarding strategic investors during the year, the RIL chairman has identified Reliance Jio, Reliance Retail, and Oil-to-chemicals (O2C) businesses as hyper-growth engines for growth.

"We executed the largest ever capital raise in India, of J2,60,074 crore (US$36 billion), through a rights issue and asset monetization. The fund raised, along with capital commitments, exceeded net debt levels, helping your company achieve a Net Debt Free balance sheet ahead of the stated timeline of March 2021. We now have a strong balance sheet with high liquidity that will support growth plans for our three hyper-growth engines – Jio, Retail, and O2C," said Mukesh Ambani in a letter to RIL shareholders.

Mukesh Ambani didn't get any salary for the year 2020-21 in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the company's annual report; however, Asia's richest man has seen a consistent rise in his net worth throughout the year.

His cousins Nikhil Meswani and Hital Meswani took home Rs 24 crore each during the year.

RIL completed India's largest-ever Rights Issue of Rs 53,124 crore (oversubscribed by 1.59 times), which is also the largest in the world by a Non-Financial Institution in the last 10 years. During the year, Jio Platforms and Reliance Retail raised Rs 1,52,056 crore and Rs 47,265 crore respectively from strategic and financial investors, including Facebook and Google. bp invested Rs 7,629 crore for a 49% stake in the company's fuel retailing business.

RIL shares on BSE were trading up 1.32% at Rs 2230.35 in a firm Mumbai market on Thursday, valuing the company at Rs 14,13,718 crore, India's most valued.