Mukesh Ambani is getting richer, but half of India's 100 wealthiest billionaires are losing money
India's economic growth has slowed – and the country’s richest people haven’t been spared the effects.
Forbes released its 2019 ranking of India's 100 Richest People, and it showed that more than half of India’s richest people lost money in the past 12 months.
Will Disha Patani replace Gal Gadot as the new Wonder Woman?
“Under the Narendra Modi-led government, which returned to power for a second term with a thumping majority in May, economic growth slowed to five per cent – a six-year low,” wrote the magazine’s Naazneen Karmali.
According to Karmali, the automobile and consumer goods industries were hit particularly hard, with lay-offs and production cuts. Fourteen of India’s richest lost at least US$1 billion each, and nine of last year’s richest didn’t make this year’s list.
Why heiress Isha Ambani has everyone's attention
The 62-year-old is now worth an estimated US$52.7 billion, making him the 15th richest person in the world. Ambani has now been India’s richest man for 12 years in a row.
The next richest entry, Gautam Adani, is worth an estimated US$15.7 billion. That may be a whopping US$37 billion less than Ambani, but Adani rose eight spots in the past year to become the second-richest person in India. The infrastructure and coal mining billionaire got approval in 2019 to start work on a coal mine in Australia after waiting nine years, according to Forbes. Adani also controls India’s largest port, Mundra Port in the state of Gujarat.
How Mukesh Ambani and his family spend their fortune
While most Indian billionaires – with exceptions such as Ambani and Adani – lost money in the past year, billionaires in France made more money than their counterparts anywhere else in the world.
The personal fortunes of French billionaires grew more than twice as fast as those of American and Chinese billionaires in the first half of 2019, Bloomberg's Alexander Sazonov reported in July, mainly thanks to China's growing desire for luxury goods.
What luxury cars does the Ambani clan own?
Take Bernard Arnault, France’s richest person and the third richest in the world, who runs LVMH, the world’s largest maker of luxury goods. Last week, Arnault made US$5.1 billion in less than 48 hours – and he has now made more money in 2019 than any other person listed in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Want more stories like this? Sign up here. Follow STYLE on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter .
After increasing his fortune to US$52.7 billion, Mukesh Ambani has topped Forbes India’s 100 Richest People list for 12 consecutive years – while infrastructure and coal mining billionaire Gautam Adani leapt eight spots to second place