Mukesh Ambani pips LN Mittal to become world's richest Indian

NEW DELHI: Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani has overtaken NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal to become the richest Indian in the world, thanks to the unprecedented boom in the domestic stock market.
    
Ambani's net worth has soared past 50 billion dollars, making him the first Indian and only the fourth person in the world to have a wealth higher than this amount. The RIL chief is now believed to be next only to software czar Bill Gates of the US, Mexican business baron Carlos Slim Helu and Warren Buffett, regarded as the world's greatest investor.
    
Based on the closing share prices of various group companies such as RIL, Reliance Petroleum, IPCL and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure, Mukesh Ambani is estimated to hold shares worth 50.1 billion dollars (about Rs 2,00,000 crore)through promoter holdings in these companies.
    
The four companies together have a market value of Rs 4,09,325 crore (103 billion dollars).
    
On the other hand, Mittal owns shares worth about 48.4 billion dollars in ArcelorMittal, the world's biggest steelmaker in terms of revenue, assets and market value.
    
Shares of ArcelorMittal, in which Mittal family holds 44.79 per cent, were trading around 55 euros (77 dollars) in European market on Wednesday, giving it a market cap of about 108 billion dollars.
    
While the net worth of Ambani and Mittal are based on thecurrent market values of their group companies, that of Gates, Buffett and Carlos Slim are based on figures for August-end.
    
According to US-based business magazine Forbes, which publishes lists for richest Americans and the wealthiest in the world every year, Bill Gates is the richest in the US with a net worth of 59 billion dollars, followed by Warren Buffett with 52 billion dollars.
    
This list was published earlier this month. The magazine had also put Carlos Slim's net worth near 59 billion dollars.
    
The magazine in its world's richest list published in March this year had placed Mittal at fifth position with a net worth of 32 billion dollars, while Mukesh Ambani was at 14th rank with 20.1 billion dollars.
    
Since then, Mittal's wealth has grown about 53 per cent, while that of Ambani rose at a faster pace of 160 per cent.
    
The comparison does not end with personal wealth only. While ArcelorMittal has become the world's first steelmaker to attain a market cap of over 100 billion dollars, Ambani has become the first person in India to head a group worth more than 100 billion dollars of market value.
   
However, Ambani-headed group includes four companies, as against just one for Mittal. India is yet to get a company with market cap of 100 billion dollars.
   
In a report released in August this year, global investment bank Morgan Stanley had predicted that RIL could be the first Indian company to achieve this mark. While forecasting a share price surge of about 37 per cent over the next year, Morgan Stanley said this would take RIL's market cap to more than 100 billion dollars by August 2008.
    
At that time, RIL's market cap stood at about 64 billion dollars, which has grown to about 81 billion dollars now. This is despite the company's shares taking a dip today with a fall of 3.24 per cent.

While Mukesh Ambani has surpassed Mittal in the top league of wealth creators across the world, his younger brother Anil Ambani, who separated in June 2005, has also seen a sharp surge in his net worth.
    
Anil Ambani's net worth, based on promoter shareholdings in various group companies including Reliance Communications, Reliance Capital, Reliance Natural Resources and Reliance Energy, has grown to about 29 billion dollars.
    
The two Ambani brothers together have a net worth of about 80 billion dollars, estimated to be higher than anyone else in the world.