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Indian businessman Mukesh Ambani is now the 9th richest person in the world and Asia’s richest man — a title once held by fellow Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, whose net worth has plunged due to allegations from a U.S. short seller.
So who is Ambani?
The 65-year-old is chairman and the patriarch of multi-conglomerate Reliance Industries
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His current net worth according to Forbes real time billionaires list is $83.9 billion.
Ambani dropped out of Stanford University in 1980 to help his father run Reliance, which was then a small enterprise. The company is now a multi-conglomerate, spanning an array of sectors including energy, telecom, retail and textiles, and generated $7.6 billion in net income last year.
Reliance remains a family-run company to date. When Ambani’s father passed away in 2022, Ambani and his younger brother Anil divided the empire — not amicably though. Tensions ran high between the brothers as their father had not left a will, leaving their mother to mediate and split the company into two.
Ambani’s children all play parts in the Mumbai-listed business. His son Akash is now chairman of Reliance Jio, which is the internet and technology arm; daughter Isha runs Reliance’s retail operations , and youngest son Anant looks after the group’s energy unit.
Mukesh Ambani is heading up the group’s pivot to green energy. Reliance has committed an $80 billion focused on renewables in the family’s home state of Gujarat over the next 10-15 years.
Adani rout continues
People walk past an electronic signage displaying news on the Adani Group at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai on January 27, 2023.
sujit jaiswal/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Meanwhile, fellow Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has had more of a rough time in the last week.
Adani’s net worth has dropped to $82.7 billion, making him the 10th richest person in the world.
The Adani Group has faced allegations of fraud after U.S. short seller Hindenburg Research published a report, sending all Adani-linked companies’ shares falling.
Read: Who is Gautam Adani? The world’s now tenth richest man.
Stakes were running high this week for flagship company Adani Enterprises’
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$2.5 billion secondary share sale to go well.
On Wednesday, Barrons reported a $400 million investment from International Holding Co., a fund linked to Abu Dhabi’s ruling family, who have already poured billions into the Adani companies.
Two of India’s biggest family businesses tycoons, Sajjan Jindal and Sunil Mittal, invested in the sale in an apparent sign of solidarity, according to a Bloomberg report that cited people familiar with the matter. Jindal has reportedly bought about $30 million.
Elsewhere, scrutiny has been mounting on the Adani group’s finances since the Hindenburg report. Credit Suisse’s private bank is no longer accepting bonds as collateral for margin loans, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. The bank declined to comment on the report when contacted by MarketWatch.
This means the Swiss lender has now cut its lending value to zero on bonds sold by three Adani companies: Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone
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Adani Green Energy
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and Adani Power
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Credit Suisse declined to comment on the report when contacted by MarketWatch.
