The Ambanies And The Share Market

NEW DELHI: The Ambani brothers continue to rule the stock markets with group companies of both Mukesh -- described as 'The Money Machine' by Indian media -- and younger sibling Anil accounting for over 12 per cent of the total 1.3 trillion dollars of wealth at the bourses.

The duo have outpaced the tremendous growth at the local bourses, which have witnessed an increase of about Rs 30 lakh crore during the year since last Diwali, with their group nearly tripling in size in this period.

With high level of personal holding in the group, the two brothers have also come under media focus with many national and international publications describing Mukesh as the richest person in the world.

The claim, however, has been disputed by his group spokesperson who feels there is a double calculation as the chairman has large holding in only the flagship company Reliance Industries Ltd and not other group companies.

Mukesh's wealth on the basis of market capitalisation of his group firms is being assessed between 44 billion dollars to over $60 billion. The facts lay somewhere in between and he is being described as 'world's richest man', 'the wealth machine' and even 'Daulat ka Devta' (lord of wealth).

But there is no such debate about the wealth of Anil, who is ranked as the second richest Indian with 38.5 billion dollars in terms of his holding in the group companies.

The market value of Mukesh group entities is about 128 billion dollars and the combined wealth of the two siblings works out to about 200 billion dollars.

This is sure to go up with Anil slated to bring an initial public offer for Reliance Power in the next few weeks and speculation is that even Mukesh could do the same for his retail business.

However, Mukesh remains unmoved by the description. "We are creating new benchmarks. The money is merely a by-product. It does not mean anything to me nor should it. These billions are just notional," he was quoted by 'India Today' as saying. Yet another magazine, 'The Week' quotes Mukesh as saying: "Frankly, I am amused by these reports. I have never worked in any way for these epithets."

His wife Nita, who just received a Rs 240 crore aeroplane on her birthday, was quoted by The Week as saying: "Mukesh often tells me, it is not what you possess, but what you do with what you have that determines your true worth."

Taking into consideration the promoter holding in his group's flagship company and India's most valued firm Reliance Industries (RIL) as well as the indirect holdings in other two group companies -- Reliance Petroleum (RPL) and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd (RIIL) on pro-rata basis, Mukesh has been dubbed as the world's richest person with a net worth of 63.2 billion dollars.

This is higher than the net worth of about 62.29 billion dollars for software czar Bill Gates, Mexican business tycoon Carlos Slim Helu, Warren Buffett (56 billion dollars) and NRI steel tycoon L N Mittal (50.9 billion dollars) on October 29.

Ambani's wealth was calculated on the basis of 50.98 per cent promoter holding in RIL and the pro-rata holding of 38.23 per cent in RPL and 23.6 per cent in RIIL. RIL holds a stake of 46.23 per cent in RIIL and 75 per cent in RPL.

But, an RIL spokesperson argued that Ambani was not yet the world's richest and his wealth should include only the "50.98 per cent promoters' stake in RIL and not the holdings of RIL in RPL and RIIL, as the market values of the two group companies are discounted in the current valuation of RIL."


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