Mukesh Ambani has surged past Europe’s wealthiest man, making him the world’s fourth-richest person.
Reliance Industries Ltd.’s chairman is now worth $80.6 billion, after amassing $22 billion this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That gives him a bigger wealth pile than France’s Bernard Arnault, whose LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE has suffered from customers curbing high-end fashion purchases faster than the company can cut costs.
Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of the Reliance Industries Ltd., arrives for the company's annual general meeting in Mumbai, India, on Monday, Aug. 12, 2019. Saudi Aramco will buy a 20% stake in the oil-to-chemicals business of India’s Reliance Industries Ltd., including the 1.24 million barrels-a-day Jamnagar refining complex on the country’s west coast, Ambani said at the company’s annual general meeting in Mumbai.
India’s richest person has already surpassed some of the biggest tycoons in recent weeks — a list that includes Silicon Valley titans such as Elon Musk and Alphabet Inc. co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, as well as the so-called Oracle of Omaha himself, Warren Buffett. The three people that still come ahead of Ambani are centibillionaires Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.
While Reliance, a conglomerate with a huge energy empire, was slammed by a slump in demand for oil amid Covid-19, its shares have more than doubled from a low in March as its digital unit got billions in investments from companies including Facebook Inc. and Google.
Ambani has slowly been shifting his focus to e-commerce, with tech giants seeking to take a piece of India’s fast-growing digital business. Google said last month it will spend $10 billion in the coming years to help accelerate the adoption of digital technologies in the world’s second-most populous nation.
Meanwhile, with LVMH shares down this year, Arnault has become the biggest loser among the world’s 500 richest people. His net worth has plunged $25.1 billion to $80.2 billion.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.
