The wealth of Asia’s richest man surged by $528 million (approximately Rs 3,800 crore) on Thursday as Reliance Industries Ltd became the first Indian company to breach the historical Rs 10 lakh crore valuation mark.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Mukesh Ambani’s net-worth stood at a whopping $60.7 billion (Rs 4.30 lakh crore) – almost one-fifth of the expenditure made by the Centre during the entire financial year 2018-19. Till now, in 2019, Ambani’s wealth has surged by $16.4 billion (about Rs 1.2 lakh crore) – a growth of 37% despite India facing one of its worst economic slowdowns.
The market capitalisation is defined as the cumulative market value of all outstanding shares of the company.
Ambani, in 2019, has also seen the fifth-highest surge in the individual wealth after Bernard Arnault of France ($35.4 billion), Mark Zuckerberg ($25 billion), Bill Gates ($20.6 billion) and Steve Balmer ($17.5 billion). Other than these, Julia Flesher Koch, who inherited her husband David Koch’s business made a windfall gain of $61.9 billion.
This surge in the wealth of Ambani puts him at the brink of breaking into the top 10 richest individuals globally – and has also helped him widen the gap with Asia’s second-richest man Jack Ma of Alibaba. Ma is worth $45 billion as of the date and has made gains worth $9.29 billion during 2019.
The promoter group of Reliance Industries, led by Ambani, controls 50.05% stake in India’s most valuable company with interest in oil refining, gas and telecom. The shares of RIL have gained 41.2% during the year, as they closed at Rs 1,579.95 per share. The rally in the stock, which most analysts on Dalal Street expect to continue in the coming days, has been primarily driven by the plans of part-stake sale to global oil giants – British Petroleum and Saudi Aramco – along with healthy growth in the telephony business.
The company opened the day’s trade at the valuation of Rs 9.95 lakh crore, but as its scrips rallied in the Indian market, the market capitalisation of the firm crossed the Rs 10 lakh crore mark.
At the end of the day, the company’s valuation stood at Rs 10.02 lakh crore, as shares were closed at Rs 1579.95 per scrip, a gain of Rs 10.20 over Wednesday’s close.
In the dollar terms, the valuation stands at $140 billion. At this valuation, though the company is valued far lower than the global big five tech companies, yet it is in the top five oil and refining companies globally.
Most analysts have a buy rating on the company, with shares likely to touch Rs 1,700 per scrip in coming days
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