3 of Ahmedabad’s 5 billionaires poorer by 25%: 'Forbes'

The Indian stock market indices- the Sensex and Nifty - have fallen by 17% in the last one year. But the poor show is not limited to the indices alone. It seems, the billionaires of the city have also grown poor with their wealth eroding by around 25%.

The situation is no better for the wealthiest in India as well. For, they too have seen their net wealth drop by over 20% in the last one year. This was revealed by the Forbes magazine, which released its annual list of 100 Richest Indians in 2011 on Thursday.

Five businessmen from the city have made it to the list of 100 richest Indians.

These five Amdavadis include - Gautam Adani, Pankaj Patel, Sudhir & Samir Mehta, Karsanbhai Patel and Bhadresh Shah. Incidentally they figured in the list last year too. Together these five have lost a net worth of around Rs14,350 crore, down by 18% when compared to last year.

The biggest loser among city’s richest was Gautam Adani, the promoter of Adani Group.

The conglomerate, which is into ports, power, trading and education among others, has witnessed severe volatility in the last one year. 

The 49-year-old Adani continued to be ranked seventh in India's richest list but lost around Rs12,500 crore of net worth, down by 24%.  Last year, the net worth of Adani was $10.7 billion which is now down to $8.2 billion in 2011.

"Shares of the company took a hit when a recent report alleged that the group was involved in illegal mining of iron ore in Karnataka; the group has denied any wrongdoing," said the report by Forbes. Mehta brothers of Torrent Group have also lost almost Rs3,000 crore of net worth. Sudhir Mehta and Samir Mehta, the promoters of pharmaceutical and power group company, Torrent, have seen a fall of 24% in their net worth. The elder brother Sudhir, at 57, runs Torrent Power while younger brother Samir runs Torrent Pharma.

The rank of Mehta brothers have also fallen from 27 in 2010 to 29 in 2011. The net worth of the siblings has fallen from $2.5 billion in 2010 to $1.9 billion this year. Another Amdavadi billionaire to see a fall in net worth is 60-year-old Bhadresh Shah. The promoter of AIA Engineering has lost around Rs680 crore and now ranks 99. In 2010 his ranks was 98. Shah's net worth was around 390 million in 2011.