The combined wealth of these 7 billionaires was near the $200 billion mark (at $194.39 billion) on Friday, December 11, after rising a strong 50 per cent so far this year, data compiled from the Bloomberg Billionaire Index showed.
$1 billion equalled Rs 7,364 crore as of Friday.
First-generation entrepreneur Gautam Adani, who owns assets across renewable energy, ports, terminals and logistics, among other sectors, has seen his wealth swell by some $21.1 billion so far in 2020. He is now worth $32.4 billion compared with $11.3 billion at the end of last year.
Mukesh Ambani, the richest Indian, has added $18.1 billion to his fortunes, which stood at $76.7 billion at last count. He was worth $58.6 billion at the end of last year.
Ambani runs India’s most-valued company Reliance Industries, which has interests in oil & gas, telecom and retail sectors.
Cyrus Poonawalla, the vaccine king of India, whose Serum Institute of India is leading the Covid fight, has seen his fortunes soar by $6.91 billion to $15.6 billion. Pune-based Serum, an unlisted entity, is the world’s largest vaccine producer.
Shiv Nadar of HCL Technologies and Azim Premji of Wipro together added nearly $12 billion to their fortunes.
Nadar’s HCL Tech is India’s third largest IT exporter. His fortunes stood at $22 billion, up $6.29 billion year-to-date. Wipro’s Premji saw his wealth grow by $5.26 billion to $23.6 billion.
The Covid-19 disruption increased demand for IT solutions from enterprises.
Celebrated investor and the owner of D-Mart chain of hypermarkets, Radhakishan Damani, has seen his wealth grow by $4.71 billion to $14.4 billion. Dilip Shanghvi of Sun Pharma is now worth $9.69 billion, up $2.23 billion.
Stock rally
Most of the addition to Gautam Adani’s wealth was led by a 525 per cent rise in shares of Adani Green Energy. Adani Green’s market-cap has surged to Rs 1.63 lakh crore as of Friday from Rs 26,040 crore as of December 31, 2019.
Shares of Adani Gas have risen 120 per cent, those of Adani Enterprises 116 per cent, Adani Transmission 28 per cent and Adani Ports & SEZ advanced 27 per cent. The Adani Power stock fell 27.91 per cent.
Six of Mukesh Ambani’s companies are listed in India, but the bulk of his fortunes come from Reliance Industries. The most valued company on BSE had a market value of Rs 13.56 lakh crore on Friday, up 33 per cent from Rs 9.59 lakh crore as of December 31, 2019.
Five other Ambani stocks – Hathway Bhawani Cabletel & Datacom (up 468 per cent), Hathway Cable & Datacom (72.38 per cent), Network 18 Media & Investment (49 per cent), Den Networks (42 per cent) and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure (37 per cent) — have also logged handsome gains this year.
Shiv Nadar’s HCL Tech is up 52 per cent year to date while Premji’s Wipro has gained 43.82 per cent, Damani’s DMart has rallied 40.77 per cent Shanghvi’s Sun Pharma 31 per cent.
The BSE Sensex has risen 11.5 per cent for the year so far.
