A Different Reality
Fortunes soar despite economic hiccups.
I
ndia’s turbocharged economy
sputtered in the quarter ended in
June, growing at a three-year low
of 5 .7%, due to the aftershocks of
last November’s demonetization
and uncertainties over the rollout of a
nationwide goods and services tax. But
in a disconnect from current reality,
the stock market scaled new heights,
boosting the fortunes of the nation’s
100 richest. Their combined wealth rose
more than a fourth to $4 79 billion.
None gained more than oil and gas
tycoon Mukesh Ambani, who cement-
ed his decade-long hold on the No. 1
spot by adding a staggering $ 15. 3 bil-
lion to his net worth. He’s now among
Asia’s top 5 richest. Shares of Ambani’s Reliance Industries
(owner of Forbes India’s publisher) were boosted by improved
refining margins and the “Jio effect”: his telecom unit Reliance
Jio’s thundering success in notching up 130 million subscrib-
ers since its 2016 launch, though it remains a cash guzzler. By
offering free domestic voice calls, dirt-cheap data services and
virtually free smartphones, Jio sparked a wave of consolidation
in the market. Witness the recent merger between Vodafone
India and Idea Cellular, the latter owned by Kumar Birla (No.
8 ), another big gainer this year.
More than four-fifths of those who kept their spot on the list
from last year saw their wealth rise, with 27 adding $ 1 billion
or more. Among them, acquisitive auto parts tycoon Vivek
Chaand Sehgal, whose Motherson Sumi snatched Finnish
truck-parts maker PKC Group for $62 0 million in March.Veteran investor Radhakishan Da-
mani returned with a bang, boosted
by the March listing of his supermar-
ket chain D-Mart.
The Indian billionaire factory
churned out several new faces (see
p. 62), but only half a dozen of them
appear in the top 100 as the minimum
net worth to make the cut rose to
$1. 46 billion from $1. 25 billion last
year. The richest newcomer is cookies-
and-airline tycoon Nusli Wadia.
Other new entrants are Rana Kapoor,
cofounder of Yes Bank, Dinesh Nand-
wana of e-governance services firm
Vakrangee, and digital India’s poster
boy, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder
of mobile wallet Paytm.
A dozen members are poorer than a year ago, half of them
from the pharma sector, which is plagued by challenges (see
box, p. 5 3). Pharma magnate Dilip Shanghvi took the biggest
hit, with his net worth falling by $4. 8 billion. Shares of generics
maker Lupin, whose patriarch, Desh Bandhu Gupta, died in
June, also declined, shrinking the fortune of his heirs. Brothers
Shashi & Ravi Ruia suffered a drop as their Essar Steel faced
bankruptcy proceedings under India’s stricter new law (see box,
p. 65 ).
These rankings are based on stock prices and exchange rates
as of September 15. Private companies were valued by using
comparisons with similar publicly traded companies.
Additional reporting by Debojyoti Ghosh, Sean Kilachand and
Anuradha Raghunathan.Mukesh Ambani added a staggering $15.3 billion.India’s 100 Richest
BY NAAZNEEN KARMALI