- Mukesh Ambani has soared past the richest man in Europe, Bernard Arnault making him the fourth richest person in the world.
Mukesh Ambani has soared past the richest man in Europe, making him the fourth richest person in the world.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the president of Reliance Industries Ltd is now worth $80.6 billion, after raising $22 billion this year. That gives him a bigger pile of wealth than Bernard Arnault of France, whose LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE has suffered faster from buyers curbing high-end fashion purchases than the company can cut costs.
India’s richest person has already surpassed some of the greatest tycoons in recent weeks — a list that includes Silicon Valley titans like Elon Musk and Alphabet Inc. co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, as well as Omaha’s so-called Oracle itself, Warren Buffett.
Although a fall in demand for oil amid Covid-19 slapped the company with a massive energy empire, its shares more than doubled from a low in March as its digital unit earned billions of investments from firms including Facebook Inc. and Google.
Ambani has slowly been shifting his focus to e-commerce, with tech giants seeking to take a piece of India’s fast-growing digital business. Google said last month it will spend $10 billion in the coming years to help accelerate the adoption of digital technologies in the world’s second-most populous nation.
Meanwhile, with LVMH shares down this year, Arnault has become the biggest loser among the world’s 500 richest people. His net worth has plunged $25.1 billion to $80.2 billion.
Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley has estimated that value of Reliance Retail Stands at approximately $29 billion, with expected sales contribution from the JioMart e-commerce company over the next three years.
In 2023, e-commerce is projected to account for 15 percent of core retail revenue figures, estimated at $19 billion, on the basis of which the valuation was based. Here the main retail sales exclude linking revenues (mobile recharges) and petro-retail, where British Petroleum has sold a share. The move comes as Reliance Retail tries to rope in strategic and financial investors for its telecom company after Mukesh Ambani’s record $20-billion fundraise.
