India's five richest lose over $10b in market fall

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NEW DELHI, Aug 13 (PTI): The rout on stock market has left no one untouched-not even the country's richest billionaires - - with the top five led by Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani losing more than USD 10 billion in just about a fortnight.
Besides Ambani, those who were accumulating wealth from a surge in bourses till a few days back and subsequently saw billions of dollars being wiped off include younger brother Anil, realty giant DLF's Kushal Pal Singh, telecom major Bharti Airtel's Sunil Mittal and Wipro chairman Azim Premji.
India's five richest persons, based on value of their stock holdings, have seen their cumulative wealth plummeting by USD 10.05 billion since July 27, the day bourses began their slide on concerns emanating in the US subprime lending market that has since spread across the world.
The market's benchmark index, Sensex, has lost over 900 points since July 27, while the total investor wealth, measured in terms of the collective market capitalisation of all the listed entities, has also gone down by close to USD 52 billion (over Rs.2100 billion) during this period.
This means that the richest five, who account for more than one-tenth of the total wealth invested in stock market, have shared nearly one-fifth of the total loss.
Their combined wealth has gone down to USD 116.75 billion dollars (about Rs.4722.56 billion), from a high of USD 126.8 billion July 26.
Mukesh Ambani, the richest of all, saw the biggest fall with his net worth plummeting by USD 2.6 billion from USD 40.5 billion (Rs.1,630 billion) on July 26 to USD 37.9 billion (Rs.1,532 billion) as August 10.
Anil Ambani, the second richest, is close behind with the second biggest fall of USD 2.4 billion. His net worth, based on his promoter holding in companies like Reliance Communications and Reliance Capital, has dropped to USD 23.7 billion (Rs.958 billion) August 10, from USD 26.1 billion (Rs.1,049 billion) July 26.
Singh, who became the country's third rupee trillionaire soon after the listing of the country's biggest real estate firm DLF Ltd early last month, has seen the fourth-biggest fall of USD 1.9 billion. This has taken his net wealth down to USD 21.7 billion (Rs.880 billion).
The third-biggest plunge has come for telecom czar Sunil Mittal, the fourth-richest in the country. His wealth has dropped by USD 2.1 billion to USd 19.7 billion (Rs.796 billion). Wipro chief Premji has seen close to USD 1 billion going away from his kitty, taking his net worth to USD 13.8 billion (Rs.558 billion).
While fall in share prices of companies where these people hold promoter stake has been the primary driver for the USD 10-billion plunge in their collective wealth, the appreciation in rupee against has also partly contributed to the fall in their US dollar-measured wealth.
In rupee terms, the total fall is about Rs.380 billion, which is slightly below the USD 10 billion mark at the current foreign currency exchange rate. However, it is over USD 10 billion when we take into account the dollar-measured figures for July 26 and the current shareholdings.
Still, the wealth accumulated by these members of the richie-rich club is much higher than a few months ago.
Earlier in March this year, US-based business magazine Forbes had ranked Mukesh Ambani as richest in India with a net worth of USD 20.1 billion. Anil Ambani was at second slot with USD 18.2 billion, Premji at third with USD 17.1 billion, Singh at fourth with USD 10 billion and Mittal at fifth with USD 9.5 billion of wealth.
Based on the current market value of the group companies of the five billionaires, their collective net worth of about USD 116.8 billion is still nearly 55 per cent higher than about USD 75 billion mentioned in the Forbes list.
While Mukesh Ambani's wealth comes mainly from about 51 per cent stake in RIL (market cap of Rs.2,523 billion), that of Anil Ambani has been largely driven by over 66 per cent stake in Reliance Communications (market cap of Rs.1,066 billion). Besides, Mukesh Ambani group firms include Reliance Petroleum, IPCL and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd.
Anil Ambani also has stakes in Reliance Capital, Reliance Energy, Reliance Natural Resources Ltd and Adlabs Films.
Wipro's current market value stands at about Rs.700 billion, while that of DLF and Bharti Airtel are at Rs.996.40 billion and Rs.1,591.32 billion respectively.