India home to 70 billionaires; Mukesh Ambani is richest Indian: Report

PTI  BL 2 MAR 14

India is home to the fifth largest group of billionaires in the world and Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, is the country’s richest man with a personal fortune of $18 billion, says a report.

According to China-based research firm Hurun’s 2014 global rich list, Mukesh Ambani was ranked 41st in the list that was topped by Bill Gates, whose personal networth stood at a whopping $68 billion.

Other noted Indians in the list include Lakshmi N Mittal ranked 49th with a personal net worth of $17 billion.

Dilip Sanghvi of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and Wipro’s Azim Premji both ranked 77th with a personal wealth of $13.5 billion each. Tata Sons’ Pallonji Mistry ranked 93rd with a personal wealth of $12 billion.

SP Hinduja & family was ranked 93rd on the list, with a net worth of $12 billion.

In the global rich list, Gates was followed by Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett (2nd) with a personal wealth of $64 billion and Amancio Ortega of Inditex was ranked 3rd with $62 billion fortune.

The fourth position was claimed by Carlos Slim Helu & family ($60 billion) while Oracle’s Larry Ellison with $60 billion was ranked fifth.

The report said that during the past year the Indian rupee weakened 12 per cent against the US Dollar, making it harder for Indians to make the cut-off.

Despite the currency fluctuations, India has improved its position over last year. In the 2014 Hurun global rich list, the country is ranked fifth with 70 billionaires, 17 more than 2013.

Interestingly, India has higher number of these super rich individuals than Germany, Switzerland, France and Japan.

The combined wealth of the Indians billionaires comes to a staggering $390 billion.

The US is home to 481 billionaires, followed by China with 358 billionaires. The US and China now have half of all billionaires on the planet, the report said, adding that the UK, Japan, Switzerland, India and Russia are growing fast in terms of billionaires.

Moreover, Mumbai is home to 33 billionaires and is among the top six billionaire cities in the world.

New York is officially the ‘Billionaire Capital of the World’ as 84 of the Hurun Billionaires live in the ‘Big Apple’, up 14 from 70 last year.

The list is a compilation of US dollar billionaires and wealth calculations were a snapshot of the positions on January 17, 2014. The list ranked 1,867 billionaires from 68 countries. The total wealth of these super rich people amounted to an eye-popping $6.9 trillion.

Of the 1,867 billionaires, 946 saw their wealth increase and there were 482 new faces. Only 318 individuals saw their wealth decrease and 123 remained unchanged.

The average age is 64, up one year from 2013. One in nine billionaires is a female, compared with one in ten last year, the report said.

(This article was published on March 2, 2014)

With $21 b, Mukesh Ambani tops Forbes list of India's richest once again

NEW YORK, OCT 29:  2013 :PTI : BL

With a networth of $21 billion, Mukesh Ambani has retained his title as India’s wealthiest for the sixth year in a row, while the country’s 100 richest persons saw their collective wealth grow by a modest 3 per cent in a year.

NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal ($16 billion) also continues to hold the second position, while Sun Pharma’s Dilip Shanghvi has jumped to third place with a 50 per cent surge in his wealth to $13.9 billion, pushing IT czar Azim Premji to fourth place ($13.8 billion).

According to the US-based business magazine Forbes’ annual list of India’s 100 richest, released today, their total wealth grew by a modest 3 per cent from a year ago to $259 billion.

“Growth in wealth was lacklustre due to India’s stumbling economy, which has been hit by inflation and a falling rupee,” Forbes said.

Amid the sluggishness, Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani and ArcelorMittal’s Lakshmi Mittal saw no change in their respective networths, but pharmaceutical industry titan Shanghi managed to buck the trend with a surge of $4.7 billion in his wealth to $13.9 billion.

Premji’s wealth also rose by $1.6 billion, but he could not retain his third slot.

Pallonji Mistry, patriarch of construction giant Shapoorji Pallonji Group, which is the biggest shareholder in Tata Sons, has moved down one place to fifth rank with a networth of $12.5 billion. His younger son Cyrus Mistry last year succeeded Ratan Tata as new Tata group head.

NRI businessmen the Hinduja brothers have moved up to sixth place ($9 billion), from their ninth position last year.

Shiv Nadar ($8.6 billion) has moved into the top-ten at seventh place, while Sunil Mittal has also returned to this league at 10th place ($6.6 billion). On the other hand, Essar group’s Ruia brothers and Jindal group’s Savitri Jindal have moved out from the group.

(This article was published on October 29, 2013)

What You Didn’t Know About Mukesh Ambani

Mukesh Ambani with his wife Nita

BY SASHA LALCHANDAN  in Luxpresso

When it comes to billionaire Mukesh Ambani, we all know everything about his professional life.

 He is the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries and is worth a staggering $27 billion. 

We look beyond his world famous business acumen.

Here are five things you didn't know about Mukesh Ambani.

Jet Setter: The business magnate gifted his wife a $60 million Airbus plane for her 44th birthday. The jet reportedly has been customised to possess an office, hi-end music systems, satellite television and wi-fi. In addition there is a master bedroom and a bathroom with a range of showers.

Car Story: Having always had a penchant for European cars, Mukesh Ambani owns 168. He favours the Mercedes, theBentley and the Maybach, his most expensive car to date. He was one of the first people to bring it into the country for an unbelievable Rs 5.25 crore.

Antilla: It is said home is where the heart is. But this 27-storey home has a lot more than heart. It consists of a ballroom, three helipads and a swimming pool. Considered to be the world's most expensive home, it cost Mukesh Ambani $1 billion. Too bad 'bad vaastu' is preventing him and his family from moving in. 

Jungle Adventure: Last year, the entire Ambani family holidayed at Kruger National Park in South Africa. It offers a range of private and luxurious stay packages that assure you the utmost comfort and privacy. Mukesh Ambani, a self confessed wildlife lover has stated in an interview that holidaying in places with 'clean air' and those that are 'in the midst of nature' make him feel like he has entered another world altogether.

Movie Buff: When it comes to entertainment, Mukesh Ambani doesn't ask for much. This billionaire is an avid movie watcher and not being able to go to a theatre doesn't stop him. In order to satiate his movie craving, Ambani has created, on the 8th floor of his new house, a massive 50 seat theatre. 

Image courtesy: Reuters

Mukesh Ambani to step down from BofA board

FP: :Mar 16, 2013

Bank of America Corp said on Friday that Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd, will step down from the No. 2 US bank’s board of directors at its annual shareholder meeting in May.

Ambani joined Bank of America’s board in March 2011, bringing global experience to a bank known for its US consumer business. He will take a seat on the bank’s new, non-fiduciary global advisory council made up of 13 businesses, academic and policy leaders.

Ambani, 55, joins former Morgan Stanley executive Robert Scully in announcing plans to leave Bank of America’s 18-member board this spring. The bank has added six directors since August in anticipation of planned departures, including by board members reaching the traditional retirement age of 72.

Reuters

Mukesh Ambani richest Indian with personal wealth of $19.3 bn

PTI : October 10, 2012, 19:32

New Delhi: Energy tycoon and Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani is the country's richest man with a personal fortune of USD 19.3 billion, says a report.

According to China-based research firm Hurun's inaugural India Rich List, Ambani is followed by the London-based steel baron L N Mittal who has a wealth of USD 16.9 billion.

Among others in the top 10 are: Wipro's Azim Premji (, USD 12.3 billion), Dilip Shanghvi of Sun Pharmaceuticals (USD 8.5 billion), Pallonji Mistry of Shapoorji Pallonji & Co (USD 7.9 billion), Shashi & Ravi Ruia (Essar Energy, USD 7.2 billion) and Adi Godrej (Godrej Group, USD 6.9 billion).

The other four who make the list of top 10 billionaires are Kushal Pal Singh (DLF, USD 6.3 billion), Kumara Mangalam Birla (Grasim Industries, USD 5.8 billion), Shiv Nadar (HCL Technology, USD 5.7 billion) and Sunil Mittal (Bharti Airtel, USD 5.7 billion).

Men dominate the list with just 5 percent of the list occupied by women.

Among the five richest Indian women, Savitri Jindal has emerged as India's richest woman with a personal fortune of USD 5.6 billion. She is followed by Indu Jain (Bennett Coleman, 1.7 billion dollars), Anu Aga (Thermax, 690 million dollars), Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (Biocon, 600 million dollars) and Shobhana Bhartia (Hindustan Times, 490 million dollars).

"The stories of the people on the Hurun India Rich List tell the story of business in modern India," Hurun Report Chairman and Chief Researcher Rupert Hoogewerf said, adding that "12 percent depreciation of rupee against the US dollar negated the appreciation in India's stock markets."

Among the rich whose wealth was adversely affected in 2012 were Mukesh Ambani, L N Mittal, Shashi Ruia and Ravi Ruia, Kumara Mangalam Birla's flagship company Hindalco and telecom tycoon Sunil Mittal.

Those whose fortunes were on the upswing this year included Azim Premji, Pharma King Dilip Shanghvi (Sun Pharma), construction tycoon Pallonji Mistry and technology entrepreneur Shiv Nadar (HCL).

Interestingly, 62 percent of the individuals in the Hurun India Rich List are self-made and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is the only self-made woman in the list.

The list is a snapshot of wealth as on September 22, at an exchange rate of Rs 54 per dollar.

City-wise, Mumbai is home to 36 of India's Richest 100, followed by Delhi and Bengaluru with 22 and 15, respectively. Also, five of the Top 100 are based outside of India and they are led by L N Mittal in London.

The youngest person on the list is Shivinder Mohan Singh at 37 years old while the oldest, Keshub Mahindra, is 89 years old. The average age of the Top 100 is 62 years while the average age of the Top 10 is 65 years. 

Mukesh Ambani world's richest Indian despite $4.7 bn loss: Forbes

 

8 MAR, 2012, 07.36PM IST, PTI  



NEW YORK: Business tycoon Mukesh Ambani has retained his title of being the world's richest Indian despite an erosion of USD 4.7 billion in his wealth in the past year as he beat 47 billionaires from India inForbes magazine's annual list of the world's richest people. 

India's top ten richest billionaires included Savitri Jindal & family (world rank 80), Sunil Mittal & family (113), Kumar Birla (116) Anil Ambani (118) Dilip Shanghvi (124) Shashi & Ravi Ruia (133) and Kushal Pal Singh(153). 

The world list has also has nine of Indian-origin living in countries like Indonesia, Ireland, Thailand, UK and the US, taking the total number of billionaires hailing from India to 57. 

India's 48 billionaires have a total networth of a whopping USD 194.6 billion. 

Jindal group's Savitri Jindal is ranked 80 in the rich list with a networth of USD 10.9 billion. 

The 54-year-old Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries, with a networth of USD 22.3 billion is ranked 19 in the global rich list. "Mukesh Ambani is the world's richest Indian, despite losing USD 4.7 billion in the past year," Forbes said. 

ArcelorMittal Chairman Lakshmi Mittal comes at the 21st position with a USD 20.7 billion networth. Forbes said Mittal lost USD 10.4 billion in the past year, more than anyone else in the world and dropped out of the top 10 rankings for the first time since 2004. Mittal had ranked sixth in last year's list when his networth was USD 31.1 billion. 

Wipro boss Azim Premji is the third richest Indian in the list. With a networth of USD 15.9 billion, 66-year-old Premji is ranked 41 on the Forbes list. 

With an USD 8.1 billion networth, Bharti Enterprises chairman Sunil Mittal is ranked 113. 

Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group chairman Anil Ambani comes in at the 118th position in the list, his networth of USD 7.8 billion, only about a third of that of his wealthier elder brother. 

"Despite patch up with brother Mukesh that included a much photographed reunion in their late father's hometown, Anil Ambani continues on a losing streak, down one billion dollars in past year and down USD 34.2 billion from his 2008 peak," Forbes said.  

Ambani Backed by India Power Is Asia’s No.1 Billionaire

bloomberg:Patrick Chu and Netty Ismail - Mar 5, 2012 6:44 AM GMT+0530





Mukesh Ambani is Asia’s richest person with a net worth of $26.8 billion, even after his shares in India’s top company by market value slid 18 percent over the past 12 months, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.


Hong Kong’s Li Ka-shing, nicknamed “Superman” by the local media for his investing prowess, ranks second in Asia, with a $25.8 billion fortune. Lakshmi Mittal, the Indian-born chairman of ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steelmaker, is the third wealthiest Asian with a net worth of $23.6 billion.





Their fortunes account for about 11 percent of the combined net worth of the world’s 20 richest people. More Asians are set to dominate the ranking in the coming years after the number of billionaires in the region surpassed Europe’s in 2010 and North America’s in 2011, according to Credit Suisse Group AG.


“Asia is witnessing a tremendous economic boom now and the entrepreneurs who are steering economic prosperity are cleverly optimizing these opportunities,” said Noor Quek, previously the head of business development in Southeast Asia at Citigroup Inc.’s private-banking unit, who now runs Singapore-based family office adviser NQ International Pte. “Growth in the number and wealth of Asian billionaires will be exponential and the process has started.”


The number of billionaires in Asia rose to 351 last year, from 245 in 2010, according to the Credit Suisse Global Wealth report. Europe had 251 billionaires while North America accounted for 332 last year, the Zurich-based bank said.


Energy Giant


Ambani, who owns 44.7 percent of Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), operator of the world’s biggest oil refining complex and owner of India’s biggest natural gas field, ranks 11th among the world’s richest. The 54-year-old industrialist’s stake in the Mumbai-based energy explorer and refiner is worth $24 billion.


Last year’s 35 percent drop in Reliance’s share price prompted Ambani to offer to buy back the stock for the first time in seven years.
Reliance’s cash more than tripled in the past two years to $15 billion after BP Plc (BP/), Europe’s second-largest oil company, bought stakes in 21 fields in India for $7.2 billion last year.


Two years ago, India’s richest man completed his 27-story house in Mumbai, where half of the city’s population lives in slums. The skyscraper, called Antilia, is worth at least $500 million, according to Anuj Puri, chairman and country head of Jones Lang LaSalle.
No. 1 in Hong Kong


Li, Greater China’s wealthiest, ranks 12th worldwide, according to the index. His investments in Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd. (1), the world’s third-largest property developer by market value, Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. (13), the billionaire’s biggest company, and Husky Energy Inc. (HSE), a Canadian oil company, are worth about $24 billion.


The 83-year-old founded Cheung Kong in the 1950s to manufacture plastics. Li increased his investments in Hong Kong real estate in 1967 after riots from China’s Cultural Revolution depressed prices. He correctly forecast in 2007 that China’s stock-market bubble would burst and predicted in 2009 the rally in Hong Kong home prices.


Mittal, named after the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity, is the 16th richest man in the world, according to the index.
A 47.5 percent slump in the share price of ArcelorMittal (MT) in 2011 has eroded Mittal’s fortune as cooling economies in China and Europe sapped demand for steel. His 41 percent stake in the Luxembourg-based company is worth about $14 billion, compared with about $17 billion a year ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.


London is Home
Mittal, 61, has lived in London since 1995 where he owns several properties, including a 12-bedroom mansion in Kensington Palace Gardens, which he bought in 2004 for 57.1 million pounds ($90.4 million). He has two other homes nearby. Luxury-home prices in the U.K.’s most expensive neighborhood have gained about 110 percent since 2004, said Grainne Gilmore, head of U.K. residential research at Knight Frank LLP.


Gina Rinehart, the 58-year-old Australian mining heiress and media investor, is the richest woman in the Asia-Pacific region, with a net worth of $20.4 billion.


South Korean steelmaker Posco (005490) agreed in January to pay 1.78 trillion won ($1.6 billion) to raise its stake in Rinehart’s Roy Hill iron ore mine project in Western Australia to 15 percent, from 3.8 percent. Rinehart, through her Hancock Prospecting Pty. Ltd., sold a 79 percent stake in two coal projects in the state of Queensland to India’s GVK Group for $1.26 billion last year.


Family Business
Lee Shau Kee, the 84-year-old founder of Henderson Land Development Co. in Hong Kong, is the fifth-richest Asian with an estimated net worth of $19.8 billion.


Asia’s family-controlled businesses, many of which are at a “much earlier stage of their life cycle,” will produce more billionaires as they raise money in capital markets to expand, said Francesco de Ferrari, the Singapore-based Head of Private Banking Asia Pacific at Credit Suisse. The market value of Asian family businesses expanded sixfold from 2000 to 2010, he said.


“Over the next five years, wealth of emerging economies is expected to leapfrog the developed world due to their more promising growth prospects,” he said.

Mukesh Ambani’s dream house is not yet his home

Source :The Week :Vikas Banaj :Saturday, November 26, 2011 16:55 hrs IST 




When the richest man in India completed his extravagant 27-storey house in Mumbai last year, it incited a public debate along the lines of‚ “What is he trying to prove?” Now, the chatter involves a different question: Why hasn't he moved in?

Mukesh Ambani and his spokesman have declined to discuss the matter, leaving plenty of room for theories. One popular explanation is that, despite the time and money lavished upon it, the building does not conform to vastu shastra. Certainly the home—named Antilia, which has three helipads, six floors of parking and a series of floating gardens—looks lived in.
 At night, the cantilevered tower is lit up top to bottom, inside and out. Members of the city's moneyed class report having attended movie screenings in its theatre and eaten dinners in the grand ballroom, served by staff trained by the luxury Oberoi hotel chain.





Yet, friends of the family say that after the last canapés have been served and the guests have bidden goodbye, the Ambanis often decamp to Sea Wind. 

That is the more modest, 14-storey apartment tower at the south end of the city that Ambani, wife, Nita, and three children share—on different floors—with his mother and his estranged younger brother, Anil, and Anil's family.





When does Mukesh Ambani plan to move into Antilia? “I have asked him the question twice,” said a friend who has attended several parties there. He asked not to be identified for fear of ruining his relationship with Ambani, whose net worth Forbes has estimated at $27 billion. “He said, ‘Yes, we'll go next month. Let it be done.' They don't talk about it.”


 Another close family friend confirmed that the Ambani family did not live at Antilia but said members did sleep there “sometimes”. This friend, who also asked not to be identified to avoid offending Ambani, had no explanation.

Ganesh idles for the house

Tushar Pania, a spokesman for Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd dismissed questions about whether the family was living at Antilia as idle gossip. “It's a private home. There is no reason to discuss it in public,” he said. He said they had moved in, but when asked whether the family still lived at Sea Wind, he revised: “They live in both places.”

But why would someone build what is widely considered the world's most expensive private residence and then use it as a pied-à-terre? Some friends, business associates and Ambani watchers offer the vastu shastra explanation, which gained wider currency earlier this year when a newspaper in Mumbai published an article about it citing “sources in the know”.

Basannt R. Rasiwasia, a vastu expert whose clients include prominent businessmen and their families, although not Ambani, said Antilia appeared to run afoul of one of the key principles of vastu: the building's eastern side does not have enough windows or other openings to let residents receive ample morning light.




“From the outside, what I see is that the eastern side is blocked, while the western side is more open,” he said. “This always leads to misunderstanding between team members. This also indicates more hard work to achieve moderate success. There is more negative energy coming from the western side.”

Rasiwasia cautioned that he could not provide a full analysis, as he had not been inside the building, which was designed by the architectural firm Perkins & Will and the interior design firm Hirsch Bedner Associates, both American. Officials from the firms declined to comment, citing confidentiality agreements.

Even before it was built, Antilia was clouded by controversy. Ambani acquired the plot where the tower sits, on Altamount Road, in 2002. He bought it for 021.5 crore, from a Muslim charitable trust. Muslim political leaders and other critics said that the land was sold for only a small fraction of its market value. Ambani acquired the property in an auction, and his spokesman has denied allegations that he paid less than the land's market value.





Last year, as Antilia was nearing completion, many Mumbai residents criticised the building as an ostentatious display of wealth in a city where more than half the population lives in slums. Gyan Prakash, a history professor at Princeton University in New Jersey who wrote the book Mumbai Fables, said the criticism could have influenced the family's decision not to make Antilia its full-time residence.


 “It is one thing to brashly announce your arrival in the billionaire's club by looking down on the rest of the city from your gated community in the sky,” he said via email, “but then you may realise that it is lonely at the top!”

But even if the Ambanis now have reservations about Antilia, the building appears to have some admirers. Eight hundred metres away, in the waterfront Breach Candy neighbourhood, another rich Mumbai business clan, the Singhania family, is building a tower with cantilevered floors.


 Many say it resembles Antilia.

The move-in date? Don't ask.