Data from Bloomberg Billionaire Index shows that half a dozen wealthy Indians, including Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, added $44.75 billion in the first six months of 2021 to their fortunes.
Only two super-rich billionaires recorded a decline in their wealth. Their cumulative wealth erosion was close to $4 billion, according to the data.
The chairperson of Adani Group, Gautam Adani, led the list of gainers. Despite a sharp sell off in Adani Group stocks earlier this month, Adani’s fortune rose $27.4 billion to $61.2 billion this year. He is the 19th wealthiest person on the planet.
Adani’s wealth had topped $84 billion earlier this month. Adani Group stocks saw a sharp sell-off in the last two weeks following an ET report that accounts of three key foreign investors were frozen by depository NSDL. The company had issued a denial later on.
Among Adani group companies, shares of Adani Enterprises soared 220 per cent to Rs 1,523.55 on June 29, 2021. The counter closed at Rs 479.55 on December 31, 2020. Adani Total Gas, Adani Transmission and Adani Power also rose between 135 to 185 per cent in the first six months of 2021.
Adani Ports and Adani Green Energy delivered 47 per cent and 7 per cent returns during the period.
The fortune of Mukesh Ambani, wealthiest Asian and CMD of Reliance Industries, surged $2.61 billion to $79.3 billion in H1 of CY2021. The 12th richest man on the earth has announced to invest Rs 75,000 crore in green initiatives of the company and become net carbon zero by 2035.
Shares of RIL have underperformed BSE Sensex so far in the year. The largest company in India by market cap has gained merely 6 per cent, whereas BSE Sensex has jumped over 10 per cent during the period. Another listed company of the group,
, has almost doubled during the period to Rs 788.
Business tycoon-turned-philanthropist and investor, Azim Premji, who was the founding chairman of Wipro, added $7.34 billion to $32.7 billion during the period under review. Shares of the IT major have soared 41 per cent in 2021 thus far.
Another IT magnate Shiv Nadar added little less than $1 billion to his wealth in the last six months as his wealth surged to $25 billion mark. Shares of HCL Technologies have remained tepid during the period, gaining only 4 per cent.
ArcelorMittal’s Lakshmi Mittal and Dmart’s Radhakishan Damani added $4.1 billion and $2.43 billion, respectively, in the first six months of this calendar year. Mittal owns wealth over $20.5 billion, whereas Damani’s fortune hit the $17.4 billion mark.
Wealth of Savitri Jindal of OP Jindal group, Dilip Shanghvi of Sun Pharma, Kumar Mangalam Birla of Aditya Birla Group, Nusli Wadia of Wadia Group, increased between $1 billion to $4.3 billion during the period.
Among the losers, Cyrus Poonawalla of Serum Institute of India (SII) and Asia’s richest bank Uday Kotak lost close to $2 billion each in the H1CY2021. They both own over $14.3 billion each.
Interestingly, Covid-19 vaccine Covishield, manufactured by SII, has global acceptance but the frenzy for jabs could not lift Poonawalla’s fortune.
