Adani loses 60% wealth, richest tag to Ambani

- Adani lost Rs3,000 cr of wealth every week

- Adani went down by 11 places to be 23rd richest in the world

- Ambani is 9th richest in the world

- India has 187 dollar billionaires, 15% higher than last year

- Mumbai is home to 66 billionaires

- With $4-bn wealth, Radha Vembu, sister of Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho, is second richest self-made women in the world from software & services

Bengaluru: Billionaire Gautam Adani’s fortunes have suffered a severe setback on concerns over corporate governance and accounting fraud, leading to Reliance Industries’ Mukesh Ambani replacing the Ahmedabad-based industrialist as the richest Indian. Adani, now valued at $53 billion, lost 60 per cent of his wealth and at 2nd place.

Consequently, Reliance Industries (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani has become the only Indian to figure in the list of the world’s10 billionaires, the Hurun Global Rich List said.

The list compiled by research platform Hurun in coordination with real-estate group M3M, mentioned that the RIL chief occupied ninth rank globally with a net worth of $82 billion though his wealth saw a 20 percent decline owing to volatility in the stock market.

Amid Hindenburg impact, Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani slipped from the position of world's second richest billionaire to the 23rd slot in 2022, the M3M Hurun Global Rich List 2023 showed. “With a net loss of $28billion, Gautam Adani slipped to the second spot. He lost Rs3,000 crore every week over the last year,” the report wrote. Adani also lost the second richest Asian title to China's Zhong Shanshan.

After Ambani and Adani, Cyrus Poonawalla stood third with a net worth of $28 billion. While HCL Tech founder, Shiv Nadar and their family was at fourth rank with $27 billion of wealth and Lakshmi Mittal was in the fifth with $20 billion of wealth.

Other Indian billionaires include SP Hinduja & family, Dilip Shanghvi & family, RadhakishanDamani& family, Kumar Mangalam Birla & family followed billionaire banker Uday Kotak at tenth rank.

India continues to one of the geographies to produce most number of billionaires globally. With 187 billionaires residing in India and 16 new additions, India continues to be the third largest billionaire producing nation in the world. If the number of Indian origin billionaires are added, this rises to 217.

“Over the last five years, Indian billionaires in 2023 added $361 billion to their cumulative wealth – this is equivalent to Hong Kong’s GDP,”the report said.

Mumbai continues to be the home for maximum number of billionaires with 66 billionaires residing in the city, which is followed by New Delhi with 39 billionaires and Bengaluru at 21.

“Healthcare sector minted the most number of Indian dollar billionaires, followed by consumer goods and chemicals.On the other hand, financial services, healthcare and retail sector minted more global billionaires,” the Hurun Global Rich List said.

Despite layoffs and valuation concerns, edtechstartupByju’s founder ByjuRaveendran and family, ranked 994th with a wealth of $3.3 billion in the Hurun List. According to the global agency, he is the second richest entrepreneur from the education sector in the world.

“Improving 103 ranks over the last year, and with a wealth of $4billion, Radha Vembu, the sister of CEO Sridhar Vembu (of Zoho), is the second richest self-made women in the world from software & services,” the report said.