Reliance Industries Chairperson Mukesh Ambani has become the fifth richest person in the world, with a net worth of Rs $74.7 billion (Rs 5.572 lakh crore), according to United States-based business magazine Forbes’ “Real Time Billionaires List”. This list is based on the value of the person’s stock holding and assets on a real time basis.
According to the list, Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos is the richest person in the world, with a net worth of $185.8 billion (Rs 13.8 lakh crore), followed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, with wealth amounting to $113.1 billion (Rs 8.43 lakh crore). In third place is Louis Vuitton SE Chairperson Bernard Arnault and his family, with a net worth of $112 billion (Rs 8.38 lakh crore). Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is in fourth place with a fortune of $89 billion (Rs 6.66 lakh crore).
Ambani, placed fifth, is now wealthier than Berkshire Hathaway Chief Executive Officer Warren Buffett, and Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who have dropped below him in the latest rankings, according to the Forbes list.
Ambani has seen a string of deals for his digital business, primarily with investments in Reliance’s Jio Platforms, and shares of his conglomerate have more than doubled since hitting a low in March.
Last month, the industrialist had said that Reliance Industries had become “zero net debt”, an aim that he had announced at the shareholder meeting in 2019. This came after the company secured investments from some of the world’s largest firms such as Google, Facebook and Intel, as well as sovereign wealth funds from Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia, firms like KKR, Silver Lake Partners and more.
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Investments in Reliance Jio since April
On July 15, Ambani had announced that Google will invest Rs 33,737 crore to buy a 7.7% stake in Jio Platforms – Reliance Industries’ digital arm. United States public multinational corporation Qualcomm had on July 13 invested Rs 730 crore in Jio Platforms. Then on July 3, Reliance announced that tech giant and electronic chip manufacturer Intel’s investment arm will buy a 0.39% stake in Jio Platforms for Rs 1,894 crore.
On June 8, Reliance Industries announced that the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority will buy 1.16% of its digital unit Jio Platforms for Rs 5,683.5 crore through a wholly-owned subsidiary. The investment came days after Abu Dhabi’s state fund Mubadala Investment Co announced it will invest Rs 9,093.60 crore in Jio Platforms, translating into an equity stake of 1.85% in the company.
On May 21, United States-based private equity firm KKR bought a 2.32% stake in Jio Platforms, amounting to Rs 11,367 crore. This came exactly a month after Facebook Inc bought a 9.99% stake in Jio Platforms for Rs 43,574 crore.
The announcements have come even as the world continues to face the coronavirus pandemic. Lockdowns in many parts of the world have severely impacted national economies and wrought hardships on many other small and large businesses.
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