Riding on a fund-raising spree, Mukesh Ambani has emerged as the eighth richest man in the world, a position he shares with Google co-founder Sergey Brin. The other Indian in the global rich list is ‘Vaccine King’ Cyrus Poonawalla, who has become the 57th richest man in the world.

For the previous two years, Ambani was ranked as the ninth richest. The Chairman and Managing Director Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), who is already Asia’s richest man, has moved one rank up from the earlier position he held before the Covid-19 outbreak, as on January 31, 2020. Ambani’s net worth stood at ₹4.98-lakh crore as of May 31, 2020, according to a Hurun Research report.

V-shaped recover

For Ambani, it was a “V-shaped recovery”. His wealth bounced back to ₹1,35,900 crore in the last two months, after losing ₹1,43,500 crore in the first two months after the outbreak, the special report, ‘Wealth Impact 4mths After Covid-19 Outbreak’, said.

The net worth of Poonawalla, the Chairman of Poonawalla Group, which includes Serum Institute of India, rose on the back of Serum Institute’s Covid-19 vaccine distribution and manufacturing potential, it said.

“Having finished the world’s fastest billion-dollar fund-raise in the technology sector, Mukesh Ambani gained all the wealth he lost before the Janta Curfew,” Hurun India Managing Director and Chief Researcher Anas Rahman Junaid said.

“India could be playing a very impactful role in fighting coronavirus through Cyrus Poonawalla-run Serum Institute of India. Since last four months, Poonawalla has gained almost 25 per cent to register a wealth of ₹1,13,300 crore. Foreign investors’ belief in India’s telecom potential and leadership in biotech were displayed during the four months post Covid-19,” he added.

According to Hurun Research, Mukesh Ambani would emerge as one of the five richest people in the world in the next two or three years.

READ THE STORY: Hurun’s list: Mukesh Ambani may soon break into top 5

Since April 22, Jio Platforms (a wholly-owned subsidiary of RIL) has raised a total of ₹1,15,693.95 crore from global investors including Facebook, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala, ADIA, TPG and L Catterton. ALSO READ: RIL becomes first Indian company to hit $150-billion market cap

Bezos tops global list

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has topped the global rich list, collated after the Covid-19 outbreak, with a net worth of ₹12,08,200 crore, followed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates with a net worth of ₹7,55,100 crore.

Louis Vuitton SE group head Bernard Arnault came in third (₹6,72,100 crore), while the fourth position was shared between Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (₹6,34,300 crore) and Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett (₹6,34,300 crore).

Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (₹5,13,500 crore) came in sixth, followed by Inditex co-founder Amancio Ortega (₹5,05,900 crore).

“The two biggest winners from the Hurun Top 100 of Covid-19 were online retailers Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Colin Huang Zheng of Chinese low-end social shopping giant Pinduoduo, who added ₹1,51,000 crore and ₹1,35,900 crore to their fortunes, pretty much all the gains coming in the past two months,” Hurun Report Chairman and Chief Researcher Rupert Hoogewerf said.

“For Bezos and Huang, Covid-19 has seen their wealth increase in the shape of a ‘Nike tick’”, he said.

Zoom effect

“Another big winner was Eric Yuan Zheng, of videoconferencing app Zoom, who saw his wealth triple from ₹34,000 crore in January to ₹98,200 crore today, propelling him up from 555th in the world four months ago to knocking on the door of the world’s Top 100 today,” added Hoogewerf.

Stock markets across the world dropped significantly in the first two months after the outbreak but clawed back some of the losses in the second two months. India, the UK and France were down by about 20 per cent, with the NYSE, Japan, HK and Germany down around 10 per cent.

Mainland China’s stock exchanges were down slightly at 4 per cent, whilst the only major stock market to see a gain was Nasdaq, up 4 per cent.

The biggest losers during the four-month-period were Warren Buffett and Bernard Arnault who lost ₹1,35,900 crore due to the pandemic, followed by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim (₹1,28,400 crore).

In the four months to May 31, 2020, China added three individuals to the world’s top 100 billionaires, with the US, Russia and Italy each adding one. The US today has 39 in the top 100, compared with 26 from China.

Hurun Global Top 10, as of May 31, 2020, compared with Jan 31, 2020

 

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