- Net Worth of India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani fell 28 percent or $300 million a day for two months to $48 billion as of March 31 due to major stock market correction.
Net worth of India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani fell 28 percent or $300 million a day for two months to $48 billion as of March 31 due to major stock market correction, a study said Monday. The diversified Reliance Industries chairman and managing director saw his wealth decline to $19 billion, taking his global ranking down eight positions to seventeenth, the Hurun Global Rich List said.
Other Indian businessmen who have seen a significant decline in wealth include Gautam Adani whose wealth has eroded by $6 billion or 37 percent, HCL Technologies Shiv Nadar ($5 billion or 26 percent) and banker Uday Kotak ($4 billion or 28 percent), it said.\
All three have dropped out of the top 100 ranking, leaving Ambani as the league’s only Indian.
In the last two months, the Indian market has corrected by 25 percent as the economic costs and effectiveness of the COVID-19 pandemic on companies has contributed to a worldwide sell-off.
“India’s top businessmen have been hit by a 26 percent decline in stock markets and a 5.2 percent decline in rupee value compared to the US dollar. It’s been a perfect storm for Mukesh Ambani, with its wealth down 28 percent,” said Anas Rahman, managing director of Hurun Report India.
Ambani is the world’s second-largest wealth loser after Bernard Arnault, chief executive of French luxury company LVMH, whose wealth fell to $77 billion by 28 percent or $30 billion.
Berkshire Hathway Warren Buffet also lost $19 billion in income over the past two months, to $83 billion, making it a 19 percent drop in percentage terms, the study said.
With hospitality under extreme pressure due to the pandemic, Ritesh Agarwal of the shared economy platform Oyo Rooms is “no more a billionaire,” the rich list said.
Others included Carlos Slim and family, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Michael Bloomberg in the top 10 list of wealth losers, it said.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos continues to be the world’s richest man with a net worth of $131 billion, slipping just 9 percent in the past two months, led by Bill Gates with a fortune of $91 billion (down 14 percent), Buffet and Arnault.
Over the past two months, Chinese billionaires were among the few gainers, including video conferencing promoters and pork meat processing firms, he said.
Although India has lost three rankings in the top 100, China has added six billionaires to the table, it said.
Coronavirus has hit economies across the world very hard with billionaires losing money and small businesses also take the burn.
