Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani has become the richest man in Asia once again.
Mukesh Ambani has overtaken Zhong Shanshan, a Chinese billionaire businessman and the chairperson of the Nongfu Spring beverage company.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index (BBI), Ambani has a net worth of about 80 billion dollars.
Zhong Shanshan, as per the BBI, is now worth 76.6 billion dollars, down over 22 billion dollars from a peak last week.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the richest people in the world.
Bloomberg reported that despite a brutal week for markets, Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) was relatively unscathed as it said it would spin off its oil-to-chemicals business into an independent unit.
“Ambani has focused on pivoting his empire to tech and e-commerce, moving away from energy. Last year, he sold stakes in Reliance’s digital and retail units worth $27 billion to investors including Google and Facebook Inc., lifting his fortune by $18 billion,” Bloomberg reported.
“The spin off announced this week of the oil-to-chemicals unit — which accounted for more than 60% of the conglomerate’s revenue in the last fiscal year — will help the tycoon bring in more investors and expedite a proposed stake sale to Saudi Arabian Oil Co,” the report said.
Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, who was the richest man in Asia for the last two years, was overtaken by Zhong Shanshan recently.
China’s bottled-water king Zhong Shanshan was the sixth-wealthiest person in the world by early 2021.