Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani has regained his spot as Asia's richest person after rival Gautam Adani tumbled to No. 24, Forbes said in its Billionaire 2023 list released on Tuesday. With a net worth of $83.4 billion, 65-year-old Ambani is also among world's top ten billionaires at the ninth position with LVMH's Bernard Arnault topping the coveted list.
Mukesh Ambani was ranked 10th in the prestigious list last year, with an estimated net worth of $90.7 billion. In the latest list this year, Mukesh Ambani is ranked higher than Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Michael Dell of Dell Technologies.
"Adani was the world's third-richest person on January 24, when he was worth nearly $126 billion. A report issued by US short-seller Hindenburg Research later that day, however, sent his companies' shares plummeting," Forbes said.
Hindenburg's report, released on Jan. 24. eroded more than $100 billion in the value of shares in Adani firms and forced the conglomerate to scale back some of its aggressive expansion plans.
His net worth is now $47.2 billion and is the second richest Indian behind Ambani. "Last year, Ambani's oil-to-telecom behemoth Reliance Industries became the first Indian company to surpass $100 billion in revenue," Forbes said.
Ambani, it said, sidestepped speculation about succession by giving his children key roles last year: Older son Akash is the chairman of telecom arm Jio Infocomm; daughter Isha is the head of the retail business; and younger son Anant works in Reliance's new energy ventures.
The 25 richest people in the world are worth a collective $2.1 trillion, according to Forbes' World's Billionaires list, down a combined $200 billion from $2.3 trillion in 2022.
"Two-thirds of the top 25 are poorer than they were last year, compared to around half of the list overall," it said.
No one lost more than Jeff Bezos as Amazon shares crashed by 38 per cent, thus taking him from No. 2 in the world in 2022 to No. 3 this year.
This year's second-biggest loser, Elon Musk, had it worse. He lost his title of world's richest person after his pricey purchase of Twitter, which he funded in part by the sale of Tesla shares, helping to spook investors.
Musk, who is worth $39 billion less than a year ago, is now No. 2.
With $211 billion net worth, Bernard Arnault, the French luxury goods tycoon, tops the list for the first time on the back of a banner year at LVMH, which owns Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Tiffany & Co., among others.
Musk, 51, with $180 billion net worth, is ranked No. 2, followed by Jeff Bezos with $114 billion net worth.
"There are a record number of Indians on Forbes' 2023 list of the World's Billionaires - 169 in all, up from 166 last year. But their combined wealth faced a reality check, dropping 10 per cent to $675 billion, from $750 billion on the 2022 list," Forbes said.
The majority of that decline came from one high-profile saga: the stock rout of companies in the Adani Group, following a January report of fraud allegations by short-seller Hindenburg Research (allegations the Adani Group has denied).
"The infrastructure and commodities tycoon, who briefly became the world's second richest person last September and was the world's third richest person for most of January, slipped to No. 24 globally. He is now India's second wealthiest citizen," it said.
Adani's elder brother Vinod was estimated to be worth nearly $10 billion "but not counted as an Indian billionaire due to his Cyprus passport," it said.
With the sheen off the tech sector, software magnate Shiv Nadar's fortune tumbled 11 per cent from a year ago to $25.6 billion, but he retained his position as the country's third richest person.
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Despite declining demand for Covid-19 vaccines, India's vaccine king Cyrus Poonawalla -- whose portfolio includes listed financial services firm Poonawalla Fincorp as well as privately held vaccine giant Serum Institute of India -- held onto his spot as the country's fourth richest person, though his net worth fell 7 per cent from a year ago to $22.6 billion.
Steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal was ranked at No. 5 followed by OP Jindal Group matriarch Savitri Jindal, Sun Pharma's Dilip Shanghvi and Radhakishan Damani, whose Avenue Supermarts owns the DMart retail chain.
Kumar Birla is ranked at No. 9 and Uday Kotak at No. 10.
Among the newcomers is the youngest Indian billionaire, 36-year-old Nikhil Kamath, who co-founded discount brokerage Zerodha with his older sibling Nithin Kamath (also a newcomer). The Bengaluru brothers are worth $1.1 billion and $2.7 billion, respectively.
Four people returned to the list this year after previously falling off, including Keshub Mahindra, chairman emeritus of Mahindra & Mahindra. The 99 year-old patriarch is the oldest Indian billionaire and has a net worth of $1.2 billion.
Twenty-three people from last year's list didn't make the cut this time, including metals magnate Anil Agarwal, who's weighed down by debt, and payments pioneer Vijay Shekhar Sharma, whose One97 Communications has seen its shares steadily fall since its IPO in late 2021 amid increasing competition for its Paytm payments app and prominent investors, such as SoftBank and Alibaba, paring their stakes.
While Forbes' global count of billionaires slipped from 2,668 last year to 2,640 in 2023, the tally in India improved from 166 in 2022 to 169 this year. Forbes noted that falling stocks, wounded unicorns and rising interest rates translated into a down year for the world's wealthiest people. Altogether, the planet's billionaires are now worth $12.2 trillion, a drop of $500 billion from $12.7 trillion in March 2022.
According to Forbes, the United States still boasts the most billionaires, with 735 list members worth a collective $4.5 trillion. China (including Hong Kong and Macau) remains second, with 562 billionaires worth $2 trillion, followed by India, with 169 billionaires worth $675 billion. To calculate net worth, Forbes used stock prices and exchange rates from March 10, 2023.
With inputs from PTI
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