Mukesh Ambani 10th richest person in the world with net worth of $54 billion

Mumbai: Reliance Industries Ltd chairman Mukesh Ambani is now among the Top 10 richest persons in the world with a net worth of $54 billion even as younger brother Anil Ambani paled into the oblivion having lost over 65% of his net worth, according to a report.

The Hurun Global Rich List 2019 is topped by Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos for the second year in a row, while Mukesh Ambani is placed 10th with a net worth of ₹3.83 trillion, thanks to a rally in RIL share prices, imparting the energy-to-telecom group a market capitalisation of ₹8 trillion.

Mukesh Ambani owns almost 52% in Reliance Industries.

Anil Ambani, held in contempt of court by the Supreme Court last week for not paying Ericsson ₹540 crore, has lost over $5 billion—from $7 billion seven years ago to $1.9 billion this year—even though both the brothers got off with more or less the same amount of inherited wealth.

Also read: The $41 billion wealth gap that divides the Ambani brothers

"Having started off similarly after the break-up of the family wealth, Mukesh added $30 billion to his wealth in the past seven years, while Anil has lost over $5 billion during the same period," says the Hurun report.

The other wealthiest Indians are Hinduja Group chairman S.P. Hinduja with net worth of $21 billion, Wipro chairman Azim Premji is at third with a networth of $17 billion, the report showed.

Cyrus S. Poonawalla, chairman of the Poonawalla group that run Serum Institute, with a net worth of $13 billion is not only ranked as the fourth richest Indian but also breaks into the top 100 global ranking.

Steel giant ArcelorMittal's Lakshmi Mittal stands at fifth position, followed by Kotak Mahindra Bank's Uday Kotak ($11 billion), Gautam Adani ($9.9 billion) and Sun Pharma's Dilip Shanghvi ($9.5 billion).

Cyrus Pallonji Mistry and Shapoorji Pallonji Mistry, both with wealth of $9.5 billion each come in the ninth and the 10th position, respectively, thanks to their 18.4% holding in the country's largest conglomerate Tata Group.

According to the list, Smita Crishna, a third-generation heir of the Godrej family, tops the female billionaire list with a networth of $6.1 billion, while Kiran Mazumdar Shaw of Biocon Ltd is the richest self-made woman entrepreneur ranked 671 with a wealth of $3.5 billion.

"Since 2012, this is for that first time that India has slipped to the fifth rank in the Hurun Global Rich List. An underperforming rupee and a lackluster stock market resulted in the country losing one-third of the list," Hurun Report India managing director and chief researcher Anas Rahman Junaid said.

The report also points out that media billionaires had a bad year, led by Zee's Subhash Chandra and Sun TV's Kalanithi Maran who lost their networth substantially.

Bezos of Amazon tops the list for the second consecutive year with net worth of $147 billion, which may not hold for long as he is divorcing his wife who owns half of his 16% stake in the world's largest online retailer.

According to the Hurun report, the number of individuals featured in the 2019 edition has come down by 224 to 2,470 from 2,694 in 2018. The cumulative wealth of these 2,470 individuals stood at $9.5 trillion amounting to 12% of global GDP.

With a wealth of $96 billion, Microsoft founder Bill Gates ranks second in the global list followed by Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. with net worth of $88 billion, LVMH's Bernard Arnault at $86 billion at the fourth slot.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg with networth of $80 billion is at the fifth position.