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By Annapurani. V
The year 2020 was a sombre one for India and the world — unemployment rates peaked, many businesses suffered losses and the share of people pushed into poverty increased.
However, the nation’s top 10 billionaires saw their net worth rise by $76.3 billion in 2020. Among them, Gautam Adani and Cyrus Poonawalla saw the highest increase.
According to data from Bloomberg, the 10 richest people in the country are Mukesh Ambani, Azim Premji, Shiv Nadar, Lakshmi Mittal, Uday Kotak, Radhakishan Damani, Sunil Mittal and Dilip Shanghvi, besides Adani and Poonawala.
If the net worth is considered, Ambani is way above the rest with a fortune of $73.4 billion, enhanced significantly by the rally in the stock price of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) last year. Adani and Premji are next on the list with wealth of $34.5 billion and $26.2 billion, respectively.
But if the growth in wealth in 2020 is considered, Adani tops the list with a $21.5-billion, or 174.8 per cent, jump.
His net worth stood at $34.7 billion as on January 6, 2021. This included – a holding of $16.6 billion in Adani Green Energy, $6.1 billion in Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ), , $4.4 billion in Adani Enterprises, $4.1 billion in Adani Gas, $3.6 billion in Adani Transmission, $1.4 billion in Adani Power and miscellaneous liabilities of $1.5 billion.
Almost all these companies saw a spike in share prices last year. For instance, per data from NSE, the stock of Adani Enterprises gained 130.7 per cent in 2020, while APSEZ saw a 28.1 per cent jump.
Likewise, Adani Gas gained 112.3 per cent, Adani Transmission 31 per cent and Adani Green Energy, 502.3 per cent. However, Adani Power dipped 22.1 per cent.
Cyrus Poonawalla saw an 86.7 per cent jump in his net worth ($7.6 billion in value) in 2020.
A bulk of his fortune is from Serum Institute of India, according to Bloomberg. His net worth stood at $16.4 billion on January 6, 2021, including $15.5 billion in Serum Institute of India, $480 million in real estate assets, and cash and other assets of $440 million.
According to data from Venture Intelligence, Serum Institute got $150 million in a debt deal last August towards manufacturing of Covid-19 vaccines developed by the University of Oxford-AstraZeneca and Novavax.
Poonawalla’s net worth jumped from $8.7 billion on December 31, 2019 to $16.25 billion on December 31, 2020, per Bloomberg.
The Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the richest people in the world.
It is a dynamic measure of personal wealth based on changes in market, economy and Bloomberg’s reporting. The net worth figures are updated at the close of every trading day in New York, and stakes in publicly traded companies are valued using the share’s most recent closing price.
Valuations are converted to US dollars at current exchange rates.
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