Mukesh Ambani has again acquired the position of the wealthiest person in Asia. With a net worth of about $80 billion, the Indian business giant is again richer than Zhong Shanshan, whose bottled-water company tanked a record 20 per cent this week.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, The Chinese tycoon is worth $76.6 billion, down more than $22 billion from a peak just last week.
Despite a hard week for the markets, however, Ambani’s reliance industries were fairly unharmed as it said it would spin off its oil-to-chemicals business into an autonomous unit.
Ambani spent most of the past two years leading the ranking of Asia’s richest people, taking over from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Jack Ma.
By the end of December and by early 2021 Zhong was able to grab the tile from Ambani and was the sixth-wealthiest person on Earth, surpassing Warren Buffett.
In January, Zhong’s Nongfu Spring Co. more than tripled from its initial public offering to a peak after investors herded to consumer shares, while his vaccine maker, Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise Co., rose as much as 3,757%.
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Ambani shifted his focus on pivoting his empire to tech and e-commerce, from energy, as in 2020 he sold stakes in Reliance’s digital and retail units worth $27 billion to investors including Google and Facebook Inc., which increased his fortune by $18 billion.
On the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, Mukesh Ambani's was at the fourth spot last year and has now come down to the 10th place.
His current net wealth is $82.8 billion, down from nearly $90 billion (around Rs 6.62 lakh crore) from 2020.