Thursday, March 11, 2010

A few billions less...

Indian business owners have been among the worst hit this year

The cat is out of the bag, while many Indian tycoons would have wished it stayed inside! While they have hitherto been shouting from the roof tops that the global meltdown has not impacted their enormous wealth; the testimony to that – the Forbes World Billionaires list, elucidates just the converse. Out of the total 53 Indian moguls who made it to the list last year, only 24 could hold on. Mukesh Ambani, who slipped two positions down, surpassed the steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal (currently at number 8, was at number 4 last year) and sat perched at the fifth slot as richest Indian with net worth of $19.5 billion.

Anil Ambani, the biggest gainer in 2008, was the worst hit this time, after losing $31.9 billion in net worth. At the 34th position, his current fortune stands at a relatively modest $10.1 billion. Says Hitesh Agrawal, Head of Research, Angel Broking, “His (Anil Ambani’s) fortunes are directly correlated to the stock market... recovering all the lost sheen in 2009 for ADAG Group seems unlikely.” While Lakshmi Mittal saw his personal fortune dwindling from $25.7 billion in 2008 to mere $19.3 billion in 2009; DLF’s K. P. Singh, too, witnessed his wealth being gnawed down by $25 billion. Notable among the tycoons who lost the billionaire title were Vijay Mallya (UB Group), Ramesh Chandra (Unitech), Sameer Gehlaut (Indiabulls), Tulsi Tanti (Suzlon) and Jignesh Shah (MCX). Tough economic conditions in their respective sectors have led to this predicament. The only gainers were the Singh Brothers – Malvinder Mohan and Shivinder Mohan of Ranbaxy – whose net worth increased over the past year (currently at $2.6 billion). The sale of 34% stake in Ranbaxy, enabled them to add $550 million to their net worth.

The correction in the personal fortunes of these ‘once-a-billionaires’ has also lead to China displacing India as the Asian country with highest number of billionaires (28 tycoons) in 2009. However, the combined value of Indian billionaires stands at $107 billion, double their Chinese counterparts, which is a humbling $44 billion. Small mercy though. For, with experts opining that the current fiscal will be equally challenging for Indian business tycoons, considering the setback that equities witnessed in 2008 and the continued risk aversion amongst investors; it would be an uphill task for this year’s survivors to hold on to their positions for another year. And an even more challenging task for dropouts is to devise a comeback strategy to regain a position in the Forbes World Billionaires 2010. They will have to really come up with something dramatic to enthuse the stock markets.
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2009


An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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