Mukesh Ambani 9th richest person, remains wealthiest individual in Asia: Forbes

Mukesh Ambani 9th richest person, remains wealthiest individual in Asia: Forbes

According to Forbes World’s Billionaires list the 25 richest people in the world are worth a collective $2.1 trillion, but since 2022 they have gone down a combined $200 billion from the earlier $2.3 trillion.

FPJ Web DeskUpdated: Wednesday, April 05, 2023, 12:27 PM IST
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Mukesh Ambani 9th richest person, remains wealthiest individual in Asia: Forbes | Image: Wikipedia

Mukesh Ambani has regained his spot as Asia's richest person after rival Gautam Adani tumbled to Number 24, Forbes said in its Billionaire 2023 list released on Tuesday. With a net worth of $83.4 billion, Ambani, 65, was ranked at number 9 on the world billionaire list.

Forbes said, "Adani was the world's third-richest person on January 24, when he was worth nearly $126 billion. A report issued by US short-seller Hindenburg Research later that day, however, sent his companies' shares plummeting."

His net worth is now $ 47.2 billion and is the second richest Indian behind Ambani.

Reliance Industries

"Last year, Ambani's oil-to-telecom behemoth Reliance Industries became the first Indian company to surpass $100 billion in revenue," Forbes said.

Ambani gave his children key roles last year: Older son Akash is the chairman of telecom arm Jio Infocomm; daughter Isha is the head of the retail business; and younger son Anant works in Reliance's new energy ventures.

Top 25 poorer than they were in 2022

According to Forbes World’s Billionaires list the 25 richest people in the world are worth a collective $2.1 trillion, but since 2022 they have gone down a combined $200 billion from the earlier $2.3 trillion. This means that the top 25 are poorer than they were in 2022.

Jeff Bezos has lost the most as Amazon shares crashed by 38 per cent he was knocked to Number 2 in 2022 but this year he has fallen another spot to number 3. This drop lopped $57 billion from Bezos' fortune.

This year's second-biggest loser was Elon Musk, who had it worse. He lost his title of world's richest person after his pricey purchase of Twitter, which he funded in part by the sale of Tesla shares, helping to spook investors. Musk, who is worth $39 billion less than a year ago, is now in second position.

With $211 billion net worth, Bernard Arnault, the French luxury goods tycoon, tops the list for the first time on the back of a banner year at LVMH, which owns Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Tiffany & Co., among others.

Indian’s on the list

This year's list has a record number of Indian’s with close to 169 Indians, up from 166 from last year. Just like the top 25, the wealth of these Indians dropped close to 10 per cent to $675 billion.

The majority of that decline came from one high-profile saga: the stock rout of companies in the Adani Group, following a January report of fraud allegations by short-seller Hindenburg Research (allegations the Adani Group has denied).

With the sheen off the tech sector, software magnate Shiv Nadar's fortune tumbled 11 per cent from a year ago to $25.6 billion, but he retained his position as the country's third richest person.

Despite declining demand for Covid-19 vaccines, India's vaccine king Cyrus Poonawalla -- whose portfolio includes listed financial services firm Poonawalla Fincorp as well as privately held vaccine giant Serum Institute of India -- held onto his spot as the country's fourth richest person, though his net worth fell 7 per cent from a year ago to $22.6 billion.

Steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal was ranked at No. 5 followed by OP Jindal Group matriarch Savitri Jindal, Sun Pharma's Dilip Shanghvi and Radhakishan Damani, whose Avenue Supermarts owns the DMart retail chain.

Kumar Birla is ranked at number 9 and Uday Kotak at number 10.

Among the newcomers is the youngest Indian billionaire, 36-year-old Nikhil Kamath, who co-founded discount brokerage Zerodha with his older sibling Nithin Kamath (also a newcomer). The Bengaluru brothers are worth $1.1 billion and $2.7 billion, respectively.

Four people returned to the list this year after previously falling off, including Keshub Mahindra, chairman emeritus of Mahindra & Mahindra. The 99 year-old patriarch is the oldest Indian billionaire and has a net worth of $1.2 billion.

Twenty-three people from last year's list didn't make the cut this time, including metals magnate Anil Agarwal, who's weighed down by debt, and payments pioneer Vijay Shekhar Sharma, whose One97 Communications has seen its shares steadily fall since its IPO in late 2021 amid increasing competition for its Paytm payments app and prominent investors, such as SoftBank and Alibaba, paring their stakes.

With inputs from PTI

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