Reliance Industries Ltd's (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani has once again emerged as the wealthiest person in Asia overtaking China's Zhong Shanshan, whose bottled water company plunged a record 20 per cent this week, losing $22 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Shanshan's net worth stands at $76.6 billion, while Ambani is worth $80 billion.
The Chinese billionaire had in September last year surpassed tech titan Jack Ma as China's richest person.
Despite an unstable week at the markets, Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) was relatively unaffected as it recently said that it would carve its oil-to-chemicals business to an independent unit.
For the past two years, Ambani held the numero uno position in the ranking of Asia's richest people. But Shanshan bagged the title from the RIL chairman after the listing of his two companies. By early 2021, the Chinese tycoon was the sixth-wealthiest person on earth.
Shanshan's Nongfu Spring Co. more than tripled to a peak in January this year, whereas his Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise Co. swelled by 3,757 per cent.
However, with a bad week for bourses, his companies' stocks tanked.
Meanwhile, Ambani has catapulted his empire and lifted his fortune by selling holdings in Reliance's digital and retail units to investors comprising Google and Facebook Inc.