Reliance Industries chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani toppled Alibaba Group’s Jack Ma on Friday to become the richest individual in Asia. According to a report, Ambani’s estimated total wealth hit $44.3 billion on Friday as RIL shares rose 1.6 per cent while Ma’s total net worth stands at $44 billion, according to the report at the close of trade in US on Thursday.
Ambani has added $4 billion to his fortune this year as Reliance doubled its petrochemicals capacity and investors cheered the success of his disruptive telecom upstart Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. Earlier this month, the tycoon unveiled plans to leverage his 215 million telecom subscribers to expand his e-commerce offerings, taking on the likes of Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Ma has lost $1.4 billion in 2018.
Ambani also owns the most-widespread mobile data network globally and claims to have India’s biggest as well as most-profitable retail firm. RIL’s current market capitalisation on Friday surged past Rs 7 lakh crore mark in the morning trade, making it the second company after TCS to achieve this milestone. The company’s market capitalisation (m-cap) rose to Rs 7,01,404 crore (over $102 billion) during the early trade on BSE. The m-cap has been calculated at the stock’s 52-week high price of Rs 1,107.25.