Mukesh Ambani’s wealth witnessed ‘V-shaped’ recovery at Rs 90 crore per hour since lockdown – Times Now

New Delhi: Asia’s richest man Mukesh Amban’s wealth grew by an eye-popping Rs 90 crore per hour since “March lockdown”, according to IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2020. At a time when all economic activity had come to a screeching halt, Reliance Industries Chairman was busy tending a beeline of investors willing to pour billions of dollars into his conglomerate’s tech play – Jio Platforms.

Since ‘March lockdown’ Ambani’s wealth fortune went up by Rs 2.78 lakh crore to Rs 6.6 lakh crore making Ambani retail his numero uno position on the list for 9^th year running.

With a wealth of Rs 6,58,400 crore, the promoter of India’s biggest company by market-capitalisation (m-cap), continues to be the richest man of the country. At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ambani’s wealth dropped by 28% to Rs 3,50,000 crore and then backed by a series of fundraising and strategic investment from Facebook, Google and other marquee investors into Jio and Reliance Retail, his valuation registered a “V-shaped recovery” and increased by 85% in just months. Despite the ongoing pandemic, RIL’s m-cap crossed Rs 10 lakh Cr and registered a 73% increase in Mukesh Ambani’s wealth.

This swing in the billionaire’s wealth is primarily due to fluctuations in the stock market.

“Ambani’s wealth is now bigger than the combined wealth of the next 5 in the list”, said Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and Chief Researcher, Hurun India.

Next on the list are the Hinduja brothers on the second spot with a wealth of Rs 1.43 lakh crore. They saw their valuation decline by 23% due to a lackluster performance of their flagship companies such as IndusInd Bank, Gulf Oil and GOCL Corporation Limited whose share price came down by 54%, 12% and 19% respectively. The brothers are based between London, Geneva and Mumbai.

Shiv Nadar, the founder of HCL, ranks third at Rs 1,41,700 crore, Gautam Adani & family with a fortune of Rs 1,40,200 crore at fouth, Azim Premji of Wipro, Cyrus S Poonawall of Serum Institute, Radhakishan Damani of Avenue Supermarts, Uday Kotak of Kotak Bank,  Dilip Shanghvi of Sun Pharma, Cyrus and Shapoor Pallonji occupied 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th positions respectively.

According to the list, there are 179 dollar billionaires in India, which is up 3 times since Hurun India started in 2013. The percentage of self-made entrepreneurs is up at 64% from 54% five years ago while 90% of the businesses on the list are family-run, Hurun said.