Pandemic impact: Mukesh Ambani’s net worth drops 28 pc to USD 48 billion in 2 months

The net worth of India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani dropped 28% or USD 300 million a day for two months to USD 48 billion as on March 31 due to the massive correction in stock markets, a report said on Monday.

The chairman and managing director of the diversified Reliance Industries saw his wealth decline to USD 19 billion, taking his global ranking down eight places to 17th, the Hurun Global Rich List said.

Other Indian businessmen who have seen a major drop in wealth include Gautam Adani whose wealth eroded by USD 6 billion or 37% HCL Technologies’ Shiv Nadar (USD 5 billion or 26%) and banker Uday Kotak (USD 4 billion or 28%), it said.

All the three have dropped off the top 100 list, leaving Ambani as the only Indian in the league.

The Indian market has corrected by 25% in the last two months as the economic costs and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on companies led to a sell-off across the world.

“India’s top entrepreneurs have been hit by a 26% drop in the stock markets and a 5.2% drop in the value of the rupee compared with the US Dollar. For Mukesh Ambani, it has been a perfect storm, with his wealth down 28%,” Hurun Report India Managing Director Anas Rahman said.

Ambani is the second biggest wealth loser globally, after French fashion giant LVMH’s chief executive Bernard Arnault, whose wealth dropped by 28% or USD 30 billion to USD 77 billion.

Berkshire Hathway’s Warren Buffet also lost USD 19 billion of wealth in the last two months, to USD 83 billion, making it a smaller fall in percentage terms at 19%, the report said.

With hospitality coming under intense pressure due to the pandemic, shared economy platform Oyo Rooms’ Ritesh Agarwal is “no more a billionaire”, the rich list said.

Others in the top-10 list of wealth losers also include Carlos Slim and family, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Michael Bloomberg, it said.

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos continues to be the richest man in the world with a net worth of USD 131 billion, which has slid only by 9% during the last two months and is followed by Bill Gates with a fortune of USD 91 billion (down 14%), Buffet and Arnault.

Chinese billionaires were among the few gainers in the last two months, and included promoters of video conferencing and pork meat producing companies, it said.

While India lost three rankings in the top-100 rankings, China added six billionaires in the league, it said.