Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries (RIL), has pipped Hong Kong’s Li Ka-Shing to become Asia’s second-richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Mr. Ambani’s wealth has jumped 54.8%, or by $12.5 billion, in 2017 to $35.2 billion as RIL’s market value has surged 48% this year buoyed by the introduction of Reliance Jio’s 4G mobile services and more recently a low-cost data-enabled handset. That has catapulted Mr. Ambani, who owns more than 40% stake in RIL, to 19 on the global rankings of the world’s wealthiest, from 29 at the end of 2016.
Investors are betting on returns from the $30 billion that Mr. Ambani has invested in Jio, which has disrupted the mobile telephony market with its pricing of data services.
RIL slid 0.6% on the BSE on Tuesday to ₹1,603.55, valuing the company at more than ₹5.21 lakh crore.
Jack Ma, promoter of China’s e-commerce firm Alibaba, is Asia’s richest person with $43.7 billion.