Hurun Global Rich List 2023 released, check the entire details here

Hurun India and M3M India today released the 2023 M3M Hurun Global Rich List, a ranking of the US-Dollar billionaires in the India. Wealth calculations are a snapshot of 14 January 2023. This is the twelfth year of the ranking. This release is to highlight and benchmark India’s position in the 2023 M3M HURUN Global Rich List.

The Hurun Global Rich List 2023 ranked 3,112 billionaires, down from 3,384 last year, from 2,356 companies and 69 countries. The number of billionaires dropped by 8% and their total wealth dropped by 10% compared with last year. 1,078 saw their wealth increase, of which 176 were new faces. 2,479 saw their wealth decrease or stay the same, of which 445 dropped-off. The average age was 66.

Commenting on the launch, Pankaj Bansal, Director, M3M India said, “At a critical point in history, when India’s GDP is poised to double by the end of the decade, we are excited about celebrating and benchmarking wealth creation in India with the rest of the world. We at M3M are even further excited about the value creation potential of the real estate sector. As Andrew Carnegie also said, “Ninety percent of all millionaire become so through owning real-estate.” For instance, when cumulative wealth of Indian billionaires increased by 80%, the wealth of Indian real estate billionaires increased by 150%. It is amazing to see that all the richie-rich in the M3M Hurun Global Rich List are also deeply involved and engaged in the upliftment of the society at large and part of building and strengthening social fabric of the nation. As demonstrated by M3M Hurun Global Rich List 2023, although global wealth creation has taken a hit primarily on the back of inflationary concerns, this trend is going to reverse in the short run and accelerate in the long run.”

Commenting on the launch, Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and Chief Researcher, Hurun India, said, “M3M Hurun Global Rich List 2023 tells the story of the current global economy through the eyes of the entrepreneurs.”, concluded Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and Chief Researcher, Hurun India.

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In terms of number of billionaires, India ranks third in the 2023 M3M Hurun Global Rich List. In terms of number of billionaires, China is almost 5 times bigger than India.

The number of resident Indian billionaires is increasing over the years. Comparison of India vs USA

Over the last five years, India’s contribution to the global billionaire population has been steadily increasing. Currently India contributes 8% of the total global billionaire population compared to 4.9% five years ago.

2023 M3M Hurun Global Rich List peeks into India’s plutocratic makeover

Number of Indian billionaires with the wealth ranging in higher thresholds have increased over the years. For instance, number of billionaires with a wealth of US$5bn has grown 2 times in the last 10 years.

Where do Indian billionaires rank in the world?

The global ranks of Indians in M3M Hurun Global Rich List is swelling at the fastest pace in India’s modern history. For instance, Gautam Adani & family has gained more than 437 ranks over the last 10 years. The table below gives a snapshot of Indians in M3M Hurun Global Rich List 2023.

Mukesh Ambani, 65, of Reliance Industries, registered a 20% decrease in wealth to US$82bn and retained the wealthiest Asian title for the third consecutive year. Ambani celebrated 20 years at the helm of Reliance, during which the conglomerate saw a 17-fold jump in revenues and a 20-times surge in profit. Ambani resigned from Reliance Jio, handing over the telecom business reins to his son Akash Ambani.

With a 35% decrease in wealth, Gautam Adani & family, 60, of Adani Group lost the second richest Asian title to Zhong Shanshan of YST. After a report in January by US short-seller Hindenburg led to Adani seeing his wealth down by more than 60% from his peak. Just before the report, Adani was briefly the world’s second richest person.

With a wealth of US$27bn, Cyrus Poonawalla, 81 of Serum Institute of India, is the third richest person in India. Vaccine King Cyrus Poonawalla is the richest healthcare billionaire in the world.

With a wealth of US$26bn Shiv Nadar & family, 77, of HCL Technologies, ranked fourth in 2023 M3M Hurun Global Rich List. With a donation of INR 1,161 crore Shiv Nadar reclaimed the “India’s most generous title” according to Hurun India Philanthropy List 2022. Shiv Nadar has committed more than US$1bn to philanthropy.

With a wealth of US$25bn, Lakshmi N Mittal, 72 of ArcelorMittal, is the wealthiest Indian Immigrant. Aditya Mittal succeeds his father, Lakshmi N Mittal, the founder of the company and currently Chairman and CEO, to become Executive Chairman. In 2022, ArcelorMittal had revenues of US$79.8bn and crude steel production of 59.0 million metric tonnes.

SP Hinduja & family, 86, decreased their wealth by US$3bn from last year, cumulating at US$20bn. The brothers are based between Mumbai, London and Geneva.

With a wealth of US$17bn, Dilip Shanghvi & family, 67, of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries is at seventh rank. He started Sun Pharma in 1983 to make psychiatric drugs and grew the company after a series of acquisitions. Dilip Shanghvi is the second richest healthcare billionaire in the world.

With a wealth of US$16bn, Radhakishan Damani & family, 67, the founder of DMart, is down 40 positions and dropped out of the Global Top 100. Damani is the eighth richest Multi-Brand Retail billionaire in the world.

Aditya Birla’s Kumar Mangalam Birla & family, 55, who saw his wealth decrease by 22%, cumulated his wealth at US$14bn in 2023 M3M Hurun Global Rich List. In January 2023, Kumar Mangalam Birla received the Padma Bhushan award for his contributions to the trade and industry sector, having served as the head of the Aditya Birla Group. 

With a wealth of US$14bn, Uday Kotak, 63, Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, is the tenth richest person in India. Uday Kotak, the founder of the fourth-largest bank in India by market capitalization, is the third wealthiest banker in the 2023 M3M Hurun Global Rich List.

Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani rank amongst the biggest wealth losers, by absolute value, in the world.

Where does India rank when it comes to wealth gain?

In terms of number of billionaires who have added US$1bn or more over the last year, India occupies sixth rank in 2023 M3M Hurun Global Rich List.

…And where does India rank when it comes to wealth depletion?

In stark contrast to the 2022 M3M Hurun Global Rich List, India is at the top of the league table when it comes to wealth depletion. When countries such as China and USA had 178 and 123 billionaires respectively, who lost more than 1US$billion, India has 41 billionaires who lost more than a billion-dollar YoY in 2023 M3M Hurun Global Rich List.

In terms of new additions, India ranks 3rd ! 2023 M3M Hurun Global Rich List added 176 new faces, from 18 industries and 99 cities. India added 16 billionaires and occupies the third spot, comfortably ahead of Italy which added 9 billionaires in this year’s list. The richest new entrant from India, Rekha Rakesh Jhunjhunwala & family, tops the list of top 16 new Indian entrants in 2023 M3M Hurun Global Rich List.

Indian billionaires are increasing “wealth share” in the M3M Hurun Global Rich List

Over the last 5 years, Indian billionaires in 2023 M3M Hurun Global Rich List added circa US$360 bn to their cumulative wealth – this is equivalent to Hong Kong’s GDP.

Geographic distribution..

24 Indian cities/ towns “produced” 187 billionaires. Based on the no. of cities from which the billionaires hail from, India ranks 6 the in the world. This table showcases the opportunity for urbanisation and consequent wealth creation in India. Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru features amongst the top 25 global cities producing the most number of billionaires in 2023 M3M Hurun Global Rich List.

Indian diaspora.

Outside of India, the Indian diaspora is based predominantly in USA and UAE followed by UK.

Native billionaires are overshadowing NRI billionaires

Over the last five years, the proportion of immigrant billionaires in M3M Hurun Global Rich List almost halved - from 23% in 2018 to 14% in 2023. Since 2018 number of billionaires residing in India nearly doubled in line with the performance of the broader market index, which increased more than 80% during the last year. This trend demonstrates that much of the wealth created in the last decade was by resident Indians.

India ranks third in terms of self-made billionaires

Source of Wealth by Industry – 2023 M3M HURUN GLOBAL RICH LIST

With 13 billionaires from Automobile & Auto Components sector, India has the second-largest concentration of Automobile billionaires after China, which has 39 billionaires.

Indian IPOs:

1. Campus Activewear, sports and athleisure footwear brand, led by Hari Krishan Aggarwal (US$2.2bn), raised INR 1,400 crore through its public issue.
2. Ashwin Desai’s (US$1.3bn) Aether Industries, a specialty chemical company, was listed at a premium of over 20%.
3. Vivek Kumar Jain (US$3.2bn) owned Inox Green Energy Services, a subsidiary of Inox Wind, raised INR 740 crore from its initial public offering.

Indian Mergers & Acquisitions:

1. Gautam Adani led Adani Group completed the acquisition Haifa Port in Israel for US$1.2bn.
2. In December 2022, Gautam Adani’s Adani Enterprises acquired founders 27.3% shares of media company New Delhi Television (NDTV).
3. Adani Group completed the acquisition of Ambuja Cements and its subsidiary ACC from Switzerland's Holcim Group for US$6.4bn.
4. Sunil Mittal (US$4.4bn) owned Bharti Enterprises is increasing his shareholding in Bharti Airtel by acquiring a 3.3% stake from his Singapore-based partner Singtel for around US$1.6 billion

Interesting facts – 2023 M3M Hurun Global Rich List:

1. IndiGo co-founder Rakesh Gangwal’s family sold a 4% stake worth INR 2,944 crore (US$353mn) in the InterGlobe Aviation in a block deal.
2. In April 2022, Nadir Godrej'39;s (US$3.7bn) family office and Dabur's Burman family office invested INR 1000 crore to a luxury holiday home developer, The Isprava Group.
3. With INR 7,500 crore committed investment, M3M has emerged as the largest real-estate investor in Uttar Pradesh in the recently concluded UP Global Investors Summit, 2023.

Billionaires Spending Big

1. Mukesh Ambani bought the Palm Jumeirah mansion for about US$163 million from the family of Kuwaiti tycoon Mohammed Alshaya.
2. Chandru Raheja's (US$5.2bn) family bought ₹265 crore Mumbai property from JK Organisation’s Singhania family.
3. Lulu Group chairman MA Yusuff Ali (US$4.5bn) bought an Airbus luxury helicopter for ₹100 crore.

Deaths:

3 Indian billionaires and possibly India’s most respected entrepreneurs from their respective sectors, states passed away during the past year.