Shares in the sprawling conglomerate Reliance Industries, which counts energy as its biggest revenue generator, rose more than 3% Monday as recovering oil prices increased the value of the energy sector in India and the top oil producers in the world. The increase was particularly good to Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani who added $2.8 billion to his fortune and helping him surpass the record of billionaire in infrastructure Gautam Adani to claim the titlel e of the richest person in India–and Asia.
As of Monday evening, Ambani is the world’s tenth richest person, worth about $89.7 billion. according to Forbes estimates according to Forbes. Adani is worth about $87.8 billion. He is also ranked as the 11th richest person in the world.
In addition to the positive news for Reliance, Reuters on Sunday announced that the company is set to acquire at around 200 stores from struggling supermarket chain Future Retail to expand its distribution as the nation’s largest retailer. The major win follows the conclusion of a two-year legal battle with Future investor Amazon over Reliance’s $3.4 billion deal to buy substantial portions of Future’s mostly unprofitable business. Since the end of 2020, the e-commerce monolith has been arguing that the deal violates the terms of its contract that are tied to its investments, despite the fact that Future is counting on the cash to repay a loan that is in default.
“The ongoing litigation initiated by Amazon in October 2020… has created serious impediments” and resulted in a “severe adverse impact” on the company, CP Toshniwal, the chief financial officer of Future, told India’s stock exchange in an note on Saturday that his company is “hopeful” the $3.4 billion agreement with Reliance will finally be signed prior to the expiration date in September. As per Reuters, Reliance will rebrand the Future stores that will remain around 1,500 locations under its flagship store chain Big Bazaar. Future Retail’s shares rose Future Retail jumped 6% Monday.
Established by the late father of Ambani Dhirubhai Ambani in 1966 , as a small manufacturer of textiles, Reliance has since grown into the largest Indian company with profits at $73.8 billion (539,238 crore Indian rupees) in the year 2000, thanks to its interests in petrochemicals, telecom, retail, and oil. Ambani assumed control of the family business following his father’s passing away in 2002. His family and he have a 49% share in the company.
Despite the enormous boost in Ambani’s fortunes however, a billionaire managed to gain even more wealth on Monday. Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, added $14.4 billion to his wealth Monday, as shares of the electric vehicle company shot up 7.5 percent. After a dramatic 40% decline in Tesla shares this year, Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi ignited the surge on Monday by telling investors that Tesla’s “unique growth profile” stood out among high-priced technology stocks. Musk is currently valued at $236.8 billion–nearly $60 billion higher than the world’s second richest man, Bernard Arnault.
