73% spike in wealth keeps Ambani on top of rich list
Hinduja brothers and HCL’s Shiv Nadar are ranked second and third in 2020 index
Mukesh Ambani, chairman, Reliance Industries, topped the IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List for the ninth consecutive year, with more than ₹6.58 trillion. Despite the pandemic, Reliance’s market cap crossed ₹10 trillion and led to a 73% increase in Ambani’s wealth in the past 12 months, propelling him to become the richest individual in Asia and the fourth richest person in the world, shows the findings of Hurun Report India Rich List 2020 and IIFL Wealth Management released on Tuesday.
The report featured 828 richest individuals from across 111 cities with ₹1,000 crore or more as on 31 August. “Cumulative wealth for this year increased by 20% compared to that of last year, while average wealth increased by 9%. As many as 674 individuals saw their wealth increase or stay the same, which is 81% of the list," it added.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Ambani’s wealth dropped by 28% to ₹3.5 trillion and then backed by a series of strategic investments from Facebook and Google, among others, in Jio and Reliance Retail, his valuation improved by 85% within four months.
“Ambani’s wealth is now more than the combined wealth of the next five in the list," said Anas Rahman Junaid, managing director and chief researcher, Hurun India.
London-based Hinduja brothers (S.P. Hinduja and his three brothers) have ₹1.43 trillion and are in the second position. HCL founder Shiv Nadar ( ₹1.41 trillion) was ranked third, followed by Gautam Adani and family at the fourth spot and Azim Premji at fifth.
With ₹94,300 crore, Cyrus S. Poonawalla of the Serum Institute of India (SII) occupies the sixth position. Poonawalla gained two ranks when his wealth increased by 6%. In June, he debuted in the top 100 in Hurun Global Rich List.
Radhakishan Damani, the founder of Avenue Supermarts, debuted in the top 10 wealthiest individuals ranking with ₹87,200 crore. Since its IPO in 2017, Avenue Supermarts’ share price has increased by over 250% and his rank increased by 23 places.
The 10th position in the list is shared by the Pallonji brothers, Cyrus and Shapoor. They have a total of ₹76,000 crore.
Others who have found a place in the top 100 list are Nithin and Nikhil Kamath (co-founders of online trading platform Zerodha), Ashok Soota (following the success of Happiest Minds IPO), Ronnie Screwvala (Unilazer Ventures), Lachman Das Mittal (an LIC agent turned entrepreneur who founded Sonalika Tractors), Vinod Saraf (the founder of Vinati Organics) and Dharam Pal Gulati (MDH founder).
The list has nearly 40 women. The richest woman is Smita V. Cris-hna (Godrej) with ₹32,400 crore, followed by Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (Biocon) with ₹31,600 crore.
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