Mukesh Ambani joins club of world’s 10 richest as net worth jumps to $64.6 BN
Reliance Industries Chairman & Managing Director Mukesh Ambani entered the list of top ten richest persons in the world, according to the Forbes Real-Time List
In a significant development in the business domain in the country, Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani has entered the list of top ten richest persons in the world, according to the Forbes Real-Time Billionaire list. Mukesh Ambani's net worth increased by over 12 times from USD 5.3 billion to USD 64.6 billion (Rs 4.9 lakh crore).
Ambani, who owns 42% of Reliance, has benefited from a number of investments into the company’s digital unit, Jio Platforms Ltd., that Reliance said has made it net-debt free ahead of a March 2021 target.
Ten firms including Facebook Inc., General Atlantic, Silver Lake Partners and KKR & Co. have poured a total USD 15.2 billion into Jio, pending regulatory clearances. Saudi Arabia-based Public Investment Fund (PIF) was the latest to invest, according to a statement from Jio on Thursday. Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund is said to invest Rs 11,367 crore for 2.32 per cent stake in the company.
"RIL has raised over Rs 1,68,818 crore in just 58 days through investments by global tech investors (Rs 1,15,693.95 crore) and rights issue (Rs 53,124.20 crore)," the company said in a statement.
The deals have helped Ambani, Asia's richest man, make his flagship Reliance Industries Ltd. net debt-free ahead of his March 2021 deadline. Jio, Reliance's wireless unit, last year became India's biggest telecom operator by subscribers and plans to use its roughly 400 million customers as the cornerstone of e-commerce and digital business.
Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires rankings track the daily ups and downs in the fortunes of the world’s richest people. The value of individuals’ public holdings is updated every five minutes when respective stock markets are open. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos tops the list with a net worth of USD 160.4 billion followed by Bill Gates with USD 109.9 billion and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is fourth with USD 86.9 billion. Ambani is a notch above Google's co-founder Larry Page with his net worth at USD 64.5 billion.
Ambani's net worth rose to USD 64.6 billion after RIL's stock price hit an all-time high of Rs 1,738.95 a share on Friday. This occurred after he announced that RIL is now a net debt-free company. As on Friday end of the day, RIL became the first Indian company to be valued at USD 150 billion or Rs 11.52 lakh crore.
Published By : Pritesh Kamath
Published On: 20 June 2020 at 09:18 IST