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NEW DELHI: At a time when 10 out of top 20 billionaires lost anywhere between $1 billion and $5 billion (Rs 7,000 crore- Rs 35,000 crore) in wealth in the first 11 months of this calendar, India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani and hypermarket chain D-Mart owner Radhakishan Damani added billions to their wealth.
Ambani, whose entire wealth addition of 2018 got erased in the post-August selloff, has seen steady recovery in fortunes in the market rebound in last one month.
The RIL scrip is up 12 per cent since October 26 against an 8.56 per cent rise in the BSE Sensex.
The owner of the world’s largest and most refinery complex in Jamnagar is now worth $45.8 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaire index.
The figure stood at sub-$40 billion level early October, still off an August high of $50.7 billion.
Reuters data showed nine brokerages have ‘buy’ ratings on Reliance Industries, 16 have ‘outperform’ ratings, five have ‘hold’, one ‘underperform’ and four have ‘sell’ ratings on this widely-tracked stock.
Ambani’s another listed entity Reliance Industrial Infrastructure (RIIL) has jumped 6.6 per cent in this period.
RIL, which also owns telecom giant Reliance Jio, is expected to see a 100 per cent jump in earnings over the next five years.
Edelweiss Securities said the company’s RoCE is expected to surge – after assuming five years of cumulative losses in the telecom business – as the value-accretive petcoke and off-gas cracker projects kick in.
“RIL’s strength lies in its ability to build businesses of global scale and execute complex, time-critical and capital-intensive projects which will prove advantageous as it embarks on large investments in all core segments,” the brokerage said in a recent note.
Ambani’s wealth is up $5.52 billion year to date, Bloomberg data suggested.
Damani, whose Avenue Supermarts is now among 30 top companies by market capitalisation on BSE, seen his wealth surge 21.5 per cent since October 26.
Analysts said the D-Mart owner is doing small things repetitively better and better.
But they are not so bullish on the stock, given its rich valuations.
The stock has one buy, four outperform, one hold, six underperform and three sell ratings, Reuters data showed.
Damani’s wealth dropped $6.17 billion in October from $9.5 billion in August only to see a recovery later.
At present, he is worth $8.23 billion, up $1.27 billion year-to-date.
Kotak Mahindra Bank’s Uday Kotak (965 million), Wadia Group’s Nusli Wadia (up 9.15 million) and HCL Tech’s Shiv Nadar (up 210 million) are three other billionaires from among the top 20, who managed to add to their wealth during this period.
