News: Mukesh is richest now, but KP Singh may take over
(DNA 12/05/2006) Mumbai - Wipro chairman Azim Premji’s wish has come true. “I feel like an animal in a zoo,” he once complained when the media began calculating his personal wealth on a daily basis.
On Thursday, when the BSE opened for business, a newly listed company answered Premji’s prayers. The title of India’s wealthiest resident now belongs to Mukesh Ambani, 48.
His newest company, Reliance Petroleum, listed at over Rs100 and closed at Rs85, taking its market valuation to over Rs38,000 crore in one shot.
Of this, Mukesh’s proportionate ownership share, held directly (2.38%) and indirectly through his 40% ownership of Reliance Industries, would be Rs15,000 crore.
Taking all his companies together, which include indirect holdings in IPCL and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure, Mukesh is now valued at Rs77,863 crore. His companies’
aggregate market capitalisation crossed Rs2,00,000 crore during the day.
The Ambani scion may not, however, stay on his No 1 perch for long. Coming next month is the mother of all initial public offerings by a little-known, 74-year-old ex-soldier called Kushal Pal Singh.
His claim to fame: he owns nearly 100% of real-estate company DLF, which built most of south Delhi’s major townships, including a 3,500-acre integrated township called DLF City in Gurgaon, home to India’s call centre industry.
In June, Singh plans to offload 12-15% of his company’s shares, partly to private investors and a bigger chunk to the public, to raise almost Rs13,000 crore. At an assumed size of Rs10,000 crore, the public issue would be India’s biggest. “This massive infusion of capital and our brand name will help us grow substantially,” Singh told The Week in a recent interview.
If the markets lap it up, it would leave Singh’s estimated balance holdings of 88% valued at Rs88,000 crore. “The market is very strong and the issue is going to be a great success,” says Nimesh Kampani, chairman of JM Morgan Stanley, one of the lead managers to the DLF issue.
Given the rate at which real-estate prices are rising, the issue will not only make Singh India’s richest individual, but also one whose wealth grows fast.
DLF, once a motley group of companies, has recently been merged into one solid edifice with sales of Rs2,000 crore and profits of Rs700 crore in the year ended March 31, 2006. Put another way, for every rupee Singh earns as revenue, 35p drop down to the bottom line as pure profit.
Once investors get a whiff of that, there’s no saying where Singh’s shares will go. If DLF lists at a premium to its issue price, Singh could well challenge steel baron Lakshmi Mittal’s status as the world’s wealthiest Indian.
But then, Mittal isn’t sleeping. Nor is Mukesh. While Mittal is reworking his takeover strategy for Arcelor, the world’s No 2 steelmaker, Mukesh is planning an Indian Wal-Mart. As he said at the listing ceremony of Reliance Petroleum: “For Reliance, every new benchmark is a call to exceed it.” KP Singh has his work cut out.
On Thursday, when the BSE opened for business, a newly listed company answered Premji’s prayers. The title of India’s wealthiest resident now belongs to Mukesh Ambani, 48.
His newest company, Reliance Petroleum, listed at over Rs100 and closed at Rs85, taking its market valuation to over Rs38,000 crore in one shot.
Of this, Mukesh’s proportionate ownership share, held directly (2.38%) and indirectly through his 40% ownership of Reliance Industries, would be Rs15,000 crore.
Taking all his companies together, which include indirect holdings in IPCL and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure, Mukesh is now valued at Rs77,863 crore. His companies’
aggregate market capitalisation crossed Rs2,00,000 crore during the day.
The Ambani scion may not, however, stay on his No 1 perch for long. Coming next month is the mother of all initial public offerings by a little-known, 74-year-old ex-soldier called Kushal Pal Singh.
His claim to fame: he owns nearly 100% of real-estate company DLF, which built most of south Delhi’s major townships, including a 3,500-acre integrated township called DLF City in Gurgaon, home to India’s call centre industry.
In June, Singh plans to offload 12-15% of his company’s shares, partly to private investors and a bigger chunk to the public, to raise almost Rs13,000 crore. At an assumed size of Rs10,000 crore, the public issue would be India’s biggest. “This massive infusion of capital and our brand name will help us grow substantially,” Singh told The Week in a recent interview.
If the markets lap it up, it would leave Singh’s estimated balance holdings of 88% valued at Rs88,000 crore. “The market is very strong and the issue is going to be a great success,” says Nimesh Kampani, chairman of JM Morgan Stanley, one of the lead managers to the DLF issue.
Given the rate at which real-estate prices are rising, the issue will not only make Singh India’s richest individual, but also one whose wealth grows fast.
DLF, once a motley group of companies, has recently been merged into one solid edifice with sales of Rs2,000 crore and profits of Rs700 crore in the year ended March 31, 2006. Put another way, for every rupee Singh earns as revenue, 35p drop down to the bottom line as pure profit.
Once investors get a whiff of that, there’s no saying where Singh’s shares will go. If DLF lists at a premium to its issue price, Singh could well challenge steel baron Lakshmi Mittal’s status as the world’s wealthiest Indian.
But then, Mittal isn’t sleeping. Nor is Mukesh. While Mittal is reworking his takeover strategy for Arcelor, the world’s No 2 steelmaker, Mukesh is planning an Indian Wal-Mart. As he said at the listing ceremony of Reliance Petroleum: “For Reliance, every new benchmark is a call to exceed it.” KP Singh has his work cut out.
posted by InCar Group Press Room at 12:35
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