New Delhi, December 24: Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani seems to have had a good year!The Indian tycoon added almost $17 bn to his wealth as of December 23, the most in Asia, taking his net worth to about $61 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
"In comparison, Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma’s net worth grew $11.3 billion, while Jeff Bezos lost $13.2 billion", it added. The surge in Ambani’s fortune this year was fueled by a 40 per cent jump in the shares of his Reliance Industries Ltd., a conglomerate that’s pivoting more toward consumer offerings than its core oil refining and petrochemicals businesses.
The rally in the stock is more than double the gains for India’s benchmark S&P BSE Sensex index during the period. Investors are piling money on Reliance, betting newer businesses such as telecommunications and retail could soon unlock value. With a goal of building a local e-commerce giant to challenge the likes of Amazon.com Inc. in India, Ambani has spent almost $50 billion, mostly debt, on a wireless carrier that’s become India’s No. 1 within three years of debut.
Mukesh Ambani has changed the narrative for Reliance Industries as a leader not just in oil and gas but also in telecom and retail, and possibly soon in e-commerce as well. He successfully identified, invested and executed rapidly to create this new narrative.