Mukesh Ambani adds $17 billion to his fortune in 2019; net worth crosses $60.8 billion

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani saw his wealth surge around $17 billion as of December 23, which is the most in Asia. This has taken his net worth to nearly $60.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The increase in Ambani's wealth was stoked by a 40% jump in RIL's shares. The rally in the conglomerate's stock is more than twice the S&P BSE Sensex index during the period.

"Mukesh Ambani 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," Chakri Lokapriya, chief investment officer at TCG Asset Management told the news agency.

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"He successfully identified, invested and executed rapidly to create this new narrative. We believe this can potentially double shareholder value over the next four years," he added.

Ambani was followed by Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma whose net worth rose by $11.3 billion, whereas, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos lost $13.2 billion.

This surge in Ambani's wealth is on account of investors betting on newer RIL's newer businesses such as telecommunications and retail which could soon unlock value for them, the news agency reported.

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Asia's richest man's wealth had crossed the Rs 5 lakh crore ($70 billion) landmark on November 27 after the RIL headed closer to embrace Rs 10 lakh crore market capitalisation (m-cap).

The 62-year old Indian tycoon had earlier announced plans to cut the group's net debt to zero by early 2021 along with other plans in the pipeline.

Ambani owns almost 42% in RIL and is the owner of the world's largest oil refining complex.

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