Mukesh Ambani world's 5th richest after RIL market cap tops Rs 13 trillion

Ambani, who owns half of RIL's equity, managed to achieve this feat after raising funds from a slew of marquee investors in the Jio wireless telephony business

Mukesh Ambani inched to the fifth position in the Forbes’ global rich list on Wednesday as Reliance Industries’ market capitalisation (m-cap), including the partly paid shares, topped the Rs 13-trillion mark.

Ambani, who owns half of RIL’s equity, managed to become the fifth richest in the world after raising funds from a slew of marquee investors in the Jio wireless telephony business.

In the Forbes’ real-time billionaires’ list, Jeff Bezos tops the league table, followed by Bill Gates, Bernard Arnault family, Mark Zuckerberg, and Ambani. The Indian billionaire is now ahead of Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, and Warren Buffett.

In US dollar terms, Forbes estimated Ambani’s wealth at $75.1 billion. Fully paid shares of RIL ended at Rs 2,004 a share, up 1.64 per cent, while partly paid shares ended at Rs 1,107 on Wednesday. The market value of fully paid shares stands at Rs 12.7 trillion and that of partly paid shares is Rs 46,765, giving it a total m-cap of Rs 13.17 trillion. RIL crossed the Rs 12-trillion m-cap mark this month itself.

In the past few months, RIL has surprised the Street with its monetisation efforts in spite of a nationwide lockdown. Fourteen deals to sell 33 per cent stake in Jio Platforms, a stake sale in the fuel business, and a rights issue in total add up to Rs 2.1 trillion ($28 billionn), all to make RIL net-debt free.

Analysts said RIL’s future looks positive as its large capex cycle draws to a close — earnings increased for the energy business initially, followed by sharp increases for Jio/Retail.

“RIL is now outperforming the benchmark Nifty for the sixth year. From the lows in March, RIL is up 110 per cent (versus Nifty’s rise of 41 per cent). From end-2014, when this cycle began, RIL is up 4.1 times (versus the Nifty’s rise of 30 per cent). While the run has been very strong, and valuations are getting rich, we believe the outperformance may sustain,” a Nomura report said.

At its recent annual general meeting, Ambani said the company’s capital raise target is complete, and it would now look to add only strategic partners. 

While the proposed transaction to sell 20 per cent stake in oil to chemicals (O2C) to Saudi Aramco is delayed, Ambani said RIL is committed to a partnership with the Saudi company. To facilitate this, it is planning to spin off the O2C business into a separate subsidiary.

Ambani has said he would also look to induct global investors in the retail business in the next few quarters, and will invite more investments before eventually listing Retail and Jio through share sale.