With a combined wealth of $76 billion, the Ambani family is now the richest in Asia, according to a Bloomberg Billionaire Index that lists the 20 wealthiest families in Asia. Alone, Ambanis controls approximately 17 percent of the total wealth of $463 billion that Asia’s top 20 richest families own.
The Ambani family is now more than twice as affluent as Hong Kong’s Kwok family, which is the region’s second-wealthiest family and three times wealthier than South Korea’s Lee family (owner of Samsung), whose total wealth is pegged by the Bloomberg Index at $26.6 billion.
During the COVID pandemic, the wealth of Ambanis saw a huge leap. Mukesh Ambani, India’s wealthiest and chairman of the oil-to-telecom-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries, was in a fund-raising spree while the entire world was busy battling the pandemic.
Earlier, from investors such as Facebook, Intel, and Google, Reliance raised an incredible Rs 1.52 lakh crore for Jio Platforms, the group’s telecom and digital services business.
The oil-telecom-to-retail conglomerate plans to divest minority interests in its digital and retail businesses and to conduct, within five years, initial public offerings for both of them.
JioMart, an e-commerce company, was launched by Reliance Retail in May this year to connect mom-and-pop stores, named Kirana, with customers.
Worth noting here is that in the retail space, it was the biggest fundraising exercise and was completed within two months. In the shortest span of time, such a huge fundraising and Ambani’s efforts to diversify from his conventional oil & gas company, whose returns are dwindling, fueled a buying spree of shares in Reliance Industries. Before experiencing a correction last month, RIL shares soared more than 50 percent this year.
This year the stock rally of RIL pushed the wealth of Mukesh Ambani by over $16 billion, establishing such a large gap in wealth for the top 20 richest families in Asia. Despite the decline of Anil Ambani (ADAG chairman), who is no longer a billionaire, Ambanis retained the top spot.
The above ranking excludes first-generation wealth as well as those in the hands of a single heir, such as that of Jack Ma of Alibaba Group Holding. There is no entry from mainland China on the list because of this.
