The Ambanis became the world's first family to own a fortune of over 100 billion dollars in stock market wealth, based on the combined worth of Mukesh and Anil.
MUMBAI: The Ambanis on Monday became the world's first family to own a fortune of over 100 billion dollars in stock market wealth, based on the combined worth of two brothers Mukesh and Anil, separated for over two years now.
Mukesh Ambani's net worth Monday surged to a staggering 63.2 billion dollars, while that of younger brother Anil rose
to 38.5 billion dollars on the back of a sharp surge in the share prices of their group companies.
Their combined wealth of 101.7 billion dollars is well ahead of Waltons, considered to be the world's richest family.
The Walton family is the promoter of US-based retailer Wal-Mart Stores and holds a net worth of about 71 billion
dollars, based on its 39 per cent stake in the behemoth.
Mukesh and Anil - the two sons of legendary industrialist Dhirubhai Ambani, who started his career as a petrol station
attendant in Yemen and later founded Reliance Industries - split the business empire between them in June 2005.
At the time of split, the Reliance empire had a market capitalisation of little more than Rs 1,10,000 crore, which
has now grown over seven times to nearly Rs 7,75,000 crore.
According to the information available with stock exchanges, Mukesh controls shares worth 2,49,000 crore in his
three group companies -- Reliance Industries, Reliance Petroleum and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd. Anil
owns shares worth 1,52,000 crore through shares held in Reliance Communications, Reliance Capital, Reliance Natural Resources Ltd and Reliance Energy.
Last week, the fight between the two brothers was named among the the world's 10 biggest 'Billionaire Family Feuds'
list, prepared by US-based Forbes magazine.
"Unable to get along, the brothers began fighting publicly in late 2004 for control of Reliance Industries, one
of India's largest conglomerates. The situation became so untenable that their mother Kokilaben brokered a court-
approved peace settlement that entailed divvying up the family businesses," Forbes report had noted.
In August this year, a Fortune group magazine Business 2.0 had named Mukesh and Anil together among the world's 50
most influential in the business arena, while giving credit to their "bitter intra-family rivalry" even after more than two years of parting ways.
The two brothers were ranked at the 31st position -- ahead of the likes of global soft drink giant PepsiCo CEO
Indra Nooyi and airlines-to-music conglomerate Virgin Group'sfounder Richard Branson -- in the second annual list of "The 50 Who Matter Now".
The Ambanis made to the list because of their bitter rivalry that is driving them to excellence in their respective businesses, the magazine noted.
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