Once Anil was richer than Mukesh
Anil Ambani, the younger brother of billionaire Mukesh Ambani, was once richer than this sibling, at least on paper
Letter of Intent issued to Hazel Mercantile consortium for Reliance Naval
Hyderabad Anil Ambani, the younger brother of billionaire Mukesh Ambani, was once richer than this sibling, at least on paper. Anil had infamously said his net worth was zero after being pushed by the Chinese bankers to return their money,
There was a time when net worth of the ADAG chairman was more than Mukesh Ambani. In 2006, a year after splitting their father's empire, Anil's fortune was Rs 550 crore higher than his elder brother who now holds the title of Asia's richest person. Anil Ambani was then third richest Indian after steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and Azim Premji. That started changing shortly after. In 2007, Anil was worth $45 billion while Mukesh was at $49 billion, according to Forbes. Ambani was the sixth-richest person in the world in 2008 with a fortune of $42 billion.
In 13 years since the elder Ambani went on to become the richest Asian with Rs 7.2 lakh crore or over $97 billion fortune while the younger brother's fortune disappeared.
During the hearing of the case filed by the Chinese debtors against Reliance Communication's default of Rs 5,000 crore last year, Chairman of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) had told a UK court that his net worth was zero and that he was nearly bankrupt.
"The current value of my shareholdings is down to approximately $82.4 million and my net worth is zero after taking into account my liabilities," he told the court in 2020.
Since then ADAG said some of its heavily indebted companies such as Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Communications, Reliance Capital and Reliance Power pared some of the debt. Reliance Infra said it reduced its debt to Rs 8,781 crore as of March 2021 from Rs 14,300 crore last year. Reliance Communications debt in December 2020 was Rs 26,000 crore, it said. It was reported to be Rs 30,737 crore in fiscal 2020. Reliance Capitals's debt is down to Rs 26,887 crore in FY21 from Rs 46,160 crore two years ago. The troubles of the younger Ambani sibling are far from over as unverified claims put the liabilities of the group companies to be much greater.
However, this story is far from over. ADAG chairman's name figured among 300 Indians mentioned in the Pandora Papers leak by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICJ) last month. The ICJ reported that Anil Ambani has alleged links with offshore firms that borrowed or invested around $1.3 billion.
