News: Mukesh Ambani's rich reward

(Forbes 25/10/2006) Mumbai - While India celebrated the triumph of good over evil at Diwali, billionaire businessman Mukesh Ambani commemorated a smaller triumph of his own. Thanks to the recent gains of his Reliance Industries on the stock market, Ambani has moved up to second place among India’s wealthiest citizens, and he is the richest person who actually lives in the country.

In the last few weeks, Reliance Industries raced ahead of public-sector behemoth Oil and Natural Gas to become India’s largest company. Reliance Industries’ market value stands at around $37.4 billion, and Ambani’s net wealth has consequentially risen to more than $15.5 billion.

Reliance Industries, the flagship company of Ambani’s Reliance Group posted record results that beat analysts expectations. Net profit for the quarter ended September 30 increased 10 per cent, to $1.1 billion. Sales rose 30 per cent, to $12.1 billion.

The company is making a big push into India’s booming retail market, spending $5.4 billion to open a chain of supermarkets and other stores across the country.

Mumbai-based Ambani, 49, has displaced Wipro’s Azim Premji, who was No. 2 on last year’s Forbes list of India’s 40 richest people. Premji has a net worth of around $14.2 billion. The leader of the elite pack remains Lakshmi Mittal, with a net worth of around $20 billion, but the international steel magnate now calls Britain home.

Ambani’s younger brother, Anil, is next, with a net worth of about $13.4 billion. Anil Ambani’s wealth is also based on his shareholding in companies of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group.

The feuding siblings split the companies of the Reliance Group following a truce brokered by their widowed mother last year.

The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group companies—Reliance Communications, Reliance Capital, Reliance Natural Resources and Reliance Energy—has a market value of around $24 billion.

The Mukesh Ambani Group, comprising Reliance Industries, Reliance Petroleum, Indian Petrochemicals and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure—now has a market capitalisation of $45 billion.

Mukesh Ambani, who holds a master’s degree in business administration from Stanford University in California, joined the company founded by his late father, Dhirubhai Ambani, in 1981.