Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani regained his position as the wealthiest individual in India and Asia, Forbes said in its Billionaire 2023 list released on Tuesday. The development came after Gautam Adani's worth tumbled following a damning report by US short-seller Hindenburg Research that accused the Adani Group of stock manipulation and accounting fraud.
According to the list of world's billionaires, Mukesh Ambani stood at No. 9 with a net worth of $83.4 billion. On the other hand, the chairman of the Adani Group Gautam Adani was at No. 24, with a net worth of $47.2 billion.
"Adani was the world's third-richest person on January 24, when he was worth nearly USD 126 billion. A report issued by US short-seller Hindenburg Research later that day, however, sent his companies' shares plummeting," Forbes said.
"Last year, Ambani's oil-to-telecom behemoth Reliance Industries became the first Indian company to surpass $100 billion in revenue," it added.
Ambani is ranked higher than the likes of Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Michael Dell of Dell Technologies.
Ambani also sidestepped speculation about succession by giving his children key roles last year. Older son Akash is the chairman of the telecom arm Jio Infocomm, daughter Isha is the head of the retail business, and younger son Anant works in Reliance's new energy ventures, the publisher noted.
According to Forbes' World's Billionaires list, the 25 richest people in the world are worth $2.1 trillion in 2023, lower than $2.3 trillion in 2022.
Jeff Bezos also fell in the ranking as e-commerce firm Amazon's shares crashed by 38 per cent, knocking him from No. 2 in the world in 2022 to No. 3 this year.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk was the second biggest loser. Musk is now No. 2 with a net worth of $180 billion. With a $211 billion net worth, Bernard Arnault, the French luxury goods tycoon, topped the list for the first time.
"There are a record number of Indians on Forbes' 2023 list of the World's Billionaires - 169 in all, up from 166 last year. But their combined wealth faced a reality check, dropping 10 per cent to USD 675 billion, from $750 billion on the 2022 list," Forbes said.
The stock loss of companies in the Adani Group following a January revelation of fraud charges by short-seller Hindenburg Research accounted for the majority of that decline, allegations the Adani Group has denied.
"The infrastructure and commodities tycoon, who briefly became the world's second richest person last September and was the world's third richest person for most of January, slipped to No. 24 globally. He is now India's second wealthiest citizen," it said.
HCL's Shiv Nadar's fortune declined 11 per cent from a year ago to $25.6 billion. He is the country's third-richest person.
Vaccine maker Cyrus Poonawalla held onto his spot as the country's fourth-richest person, with a net worth of $22.6 billion. His portfolio includes listed financial services firm Poonawalla Fincorp as well as Serum Institute of India.
Steel giant Lakshmi Mittal ranked at No. 5 followed by OP Jindal Group's Savitri Jindal, Sun Pharma's Dilip Shanghvi, and Radhakishan Damani. Kumar Birla ranked at No. 9 and Uday Kotak at No. 10.
The youngest Indian billionaire, Nikhil Kamath, 36, co-founder of Zerodha with sibling Nithin Kamath, was the newcomer on the list. The Bengaluru brothers have respective net worths of $1.1 billion and $2.7 billion respectively.
In the 2023 list, four billionaires made a comeback, including Keshub Mahindra, chairman emeritus of Mahindra & Mahindra, Vedanta's Anil Agarwal, and Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma.