RIL's Lower Profits Push Mukesh Ambani Six Notches Down To 10th Position In World's Richest List

In August, Mukesh Ambani, who owns 42% of RIL, cornered the position of world's fourth-richest just after tech titans Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Bill Gates of Microsoft, and Mark Zuckerberg of FaceBook after he sold $20 billion of the stake in RIL's digital arm, Jio Platform Limited (JPL) amid lockdown.

India's richest man and oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani. FILE PIC/AFP.

Mumbai: Mukesh Ambani lost over $7billion of personal wealth as Reliance Industries (RIL) shares tanked about 9% on Monday, wiping out over Rs 1.2 lakh crore of investors' wealth, pushing not only India's but Asia's wealthiest industrialist to 10th rank according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.  In August, Mukesh Ambani, who owns 42% of RIL, cornered the position of world's fourth-richest just after tech titans Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Bill Gates of Microsoft, and Mark Zuckerberg of FaceBook after he sold $20 billion of the stake in RIL's digital arm, Jio Platform Limited (JPL) amid lockdown. Last week, Mr. Ambani was ahead of Warren Buffet, Lary Page, Sergey Brin, Steve Ballmer, and Bernard Arnault. However, investors started selling RIL's shares on Monday after the company reported a 15% drop in Rs 9567 crore profits on Friday. After falling 8.6% on Monday, RIL shares fell another 1.5% on Tuesday to Rs 1849.5 in a firm Mumbai market, valuing the company at Rs 12,50,605 crore. The current fall widened the gap of India's most prosperous with US billionaires as eight of the top 10 billionaires are from the US, barring Mukesh Ambani and Bernard Arnault of France. Mukesh Ambani's wealth pegged at $71.1 billion is $10 billion more than Jack Ma of Alibaba, who ranks 13 in the Bloomberg's Billionaire Index, the second richest Asian. In July, Mr. Ambani overtook his Stanford classmate Steve Ballmer to become the fifth-wealthiest person on the planet with a net worth of $77.4 billion. In August, Ambani had surged past Europe's wealthiest man, Bernard Arnault, of LVMH, making him the world's fourth-richest person. But RIL's fall in profits put a brake on Mr. Ambani's race to the richest. Analysts believe it may be temporary, and RIL shares may again start moving as Mr. Ambani plans to replicate the success model of Jio Platforms in Reliance Retail. After raising $20 billion for Jio, Mukesh Ambani is again in talks with global investors to raise a similar amount in the retail arm. The company has raised Rs 37,710 crore of investments from leading international investors, including Silver Lake, KKR, General Atlantic, Mubadala, GIC, TPG, and ADIA. Among the top 10 billionaires, Tesla founder Elon Musk added the most $72.8 billion to his net worth this year, while Bernard Arnault ranked fifth in the list and lost $18.9 billion this year. Gautam Adani, chairman of Adani Group with a personal wealth of $23.7 billion, ranked 49th in the list is the second richest Indian after Mukesh Ambani. Mr. Adani has added $12.4 billion to his wealth this year, while Mr. Ambani added $12.5 billion. As Mukesh Ambani plunged from the 4^th richest man in the world to 10^th position, his net worth has been added with $25.5 Billion making it to $71.1 Billion as compared to last year this time. While the top four positions are secured by the technology sector, starting from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos whose wealth was added by another $63.2 Billion making it to $178 Billion, followed by Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates who stood at $120 Billion was added up by a mere $6.8 Billion as compared to Ambani, Tesla’s Elon Musk landed on the third position with  $100 Billion with an exponential addition of $72.8 Billion. Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg stood fourth on the list with $99 Billion was added up by $20.7 from last year.