Indian businessman Mukesh Ambani is now Asia’s richest man — a title once held by fellow Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, whose net worth has plunged due to allegations from a U.S. short seller. Ambani is No. 9 on the worldwide list.
So who is Ambani?
The 65-year-old is chairman and the patriarch of multiconglomerate Reliance Industries 500325, -0.67%. His current net worth, according to the Forbes real-time billionaires listis $83.9 billion.
Ambani dropped out of Stanford University in 1980 to help his father run Reliance, which was then a much smaller enterprise. The company today spans an array of sectors including energy, telecom, retail and textiles. It generated $7.6 billion in net income last year.
Reliance remains a family-run company. When Ambani’s father died in 2022, Ambani and younger brother Anil divided the empire — not amicably, though. Tensions ran high between the brothers as their father had not left a will, leaving their mother to mediate and split the company into two.
Ambani’s children all play parts in the Mumbai-listed business. His son Akash is now chairman of Reliance Jio, which is the internet and technology arm; daughter Isha runs Reliance’s retail operations, and youngest son Anant looks after the group’s energy unit.
Mukesh Ambani is heading up the group’s pivot to green energy. Reliance has committed $80 billion to a efforts focused on renewables in the family’s home state of Gujarat over the next 10 to 15 years.
Adani rout continues
People walk past an electronic signage displaying news on the Adani Group at the Bombay Stock Exchange building in Mumbai last week.
sujit jaiswal/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Meanwhile, fellow Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has had a rough time in the last week.
Adani’s net worth has dropped to $82.7 billion, moving him to No. 10 on the richest-person-in-the-world ranking.
The Adani Group has faced allegations of fraud after U.S. short seller Hindenburg Research published a report, sending all Adani-linked companies’ shares falling.
Read: Who is Gautam Adani? The world’s now tenth richest man.
Stakes were high this week for flagship company Adani Enterprises’ 512599, -28.45% $2.5 billion secondary share sale.
On Wednesday, Barron’s reported a $400 million investment from International Holding Co., a fund linked to Abu Dhabi’s ruling family, who have already poured billions into the Adani companies.
Two of India’s biggest family-business tycoons, Sajjan Jindal and Sunil Mittal, invested in the sale in an apparent sign of solidarity, according to a Bloomberg report that cited people described as familiar with the matter. Jindal has reportedly taken about a $30 million stake.
Elsewhere, scrutiny has been mounting on Adani finances since the Hindenburg report. Credit Suisse’s private bank is no longer accepting bonds as collateral for margin loans, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. The bank declined to comment on the report when contacted by MarketWatch.
This means the Swiss lender has now cut its lending value to zero on bonds sold by three Adani companies: Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone 532921, -19.69%, Adani Green Energy 541450, -5.78% and Adani Power 533096, -4.98%.
Credit Suisse declined to comment on the report when contacted by MarketWatch.