Mukesh Ambani breaks into top 10 global rich list with a net worth of $54 bn; Amazon chief Jeff Bezos retains top rank

Mumbai: Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani has broken into the top 10 richest list globally with a net worth of $54 billion, while his younger brother Anil has paled into the oblivion having lost over 65 percent of his net worth, according to a report. The Hurun Global Rich List 2019 is topped by Amazon chief Jeff Bezos for the second year in a row, while the senior Ambani is placed 10th with a network of Rs 3.83 lakh crore, thanks to a rally in RIL shares, which had topped the Rs 8-lakh-crore-mark last month. Ambani owns almost 52 percent in Reliance. Anil Ambani, held in contempt of court by the Supreme Court last week for not paying up Ericsson Rs 540 crore, has lost over $5 billion, from $7 billion seven years ago to $1.9 billion this year, even though both the brothers got off with more or less same amount of inherited wealth. “Having started off similarly after the break-up of the family wealth, Mukesh added $30 billion to his wealth in the past seven years, while Anil has lost over $5 billion during the same period,” says the Hurun report. [caption id=“attachment_4669421” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A file image of Mukesh Ambani. Reuters[/caption] The other wealthiest Indians are Hinduja group chairman SP Hinduja with net worth of $21 billion and Wipro chairman Azim Premji is at third with a net worth of $17 billion, says the report released on Tuesday. Cyrus S Poonawalla, chairman of the Poonawalla group that run Serum Institute, with a net worth of $13 billion is not only ranked as the fourth richest Indian but also breaks into the top 100 global ranking. Steel giant ArcelorMittal’s Lakshmi Mittal stands at fifth position, followed by Kotak Mahindra’s Uday Kotak ($11 billion), Gautam Adani ($9.9 billion) and Sun Pharma’s Dilip Shanghvi ($9.5 billion). Cyrus Pallonji Mistry and Shapoorji Pallonji Mistry, both with wealth of $9.5 billion each come in the ninth and the 10th position, respectively, thanks to their 18.4 percent holding in the country’s largest conglomerate Tata group. According to the list, Smita Crishna, a third-generation heir of the Godrej family, tops the female billionaire list with a net worth of $6.1 billion, while Kiran Mazumdar Shaw of Biocon is the richest self-made female entrepreneur ranked 671 with a wealth of $3.5 billion. “Since 2012, this is for that first time that India has slipped to the fifth rank in the Hurun Global Rich List. An underperforming rupee and a lackluster stock market resulted in the country losing one-third of the list,” Hurun Report India managing director and chief researcher Anas Rahman Junaid said. The report also points out that media billionaires had a bad year, led by Zee’s Subhash Chandra and Sun TV’s Kalanithi Maran who lost their net worth substantially.

Bezos of Amazon tops the list for the second consecutive year with net worth of $147 billion, which may not hold for long as he is divorcing his wife who owns half of his 16 percent in the world’s largest online retailer.

As per the report, the number of individuals featured in the 2019 edition has come down by 224 to 2,470 from 2,694 in 2018. The cumulative wealth of these 2,470 individuals stood at $9.5 trillion amounting to 12 percent of global GDP. With a wealth of $96 billion, Microsoft founder Bill Gates ranks second in the global list followed by Warren Buffet, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway with net worth of $88 billion, LVMH’s Bernard Arnault at $86 billion at the fourth slot. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg with net worth of $80 billion is at the fifth position. (Disclosure - Reliance Industries Ltd is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd)