Mukesh Ambani pips Alibaba's Jack Ma to become Asia's richest person

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries has broken three records in the past two days -- his company initially entered the $100-billion market cap club, then it breached the Rs 7-lakh crore market valuation, and now India's richest man has replaced Chinese giant Alibaba Group's founder Jack Ma to become Asia's richest person.

As RIL stock surged to a record high of Rs 1,101 after touching an all-time high of 1,106.65 during the day on Friday, the net worth of Mukesh Ambani -- who holds 44.5 per cent stake in the company -- also jumped to $44.3 billion. According to BloombergQuint, Ma's wealth stood at $44 billion at the close of trade on Thursday in the US, where the company is listed. The report suggests while Mukesh Ambani has gained fortune worth $4 billion this year alone, Jack Ma lost around $1.4 billion.

RIL crossed the m-cap of Rs 7, 01, 404 crore (over $102 billion) on Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday, becoming the second company in India to achieve this feat after TCS. Before this, RIL had crossed the magical $100-billion valuation mark in 2007 when the rupee was valued at 39.5 against the dollar.

This is not the first time Ambani has outclassed a Chinese businessman. In December 2017, Mukesh Ambani toppled another Chinese billionaire Hui Ka Yan to become the richest man in Asia. Though the energy and petrochemicals magnate was ranked 14th among the world's Real Time Billionaires' list last year, he slipped to the 19th spot with $40.1 billion in the latest Forbes rich list in March.

A rapid rise in Mukesh Ambani's net worth has been due to his $51 billion (revenues) oil-and-gas-conglomerate, Reliance Industries. Apart from doubling its petrochemical capacity, the company this month said it plans to grab a bigger piece of country's fast-growing e-commerce sector, posing a major threat to the already established Amazon and the newly formed Walmart-Flipkart combine.

At Reliance Industries' 41st AGM on July 6, Mukesh Ambani said his company wants to synergise Reliance Retail, which has a widespread network of physical stores across India, with the strength of Reliance Jio's digital infrastructure, an upstart company that has achieved a phenomenal growth since its launch in 2016. "As Reliance transitions to become a technology platform company, we see our biggest growth opportunity in creating a hybrid, online-to-offline new commerce platform," Ambani said at the shareholders' meeting. Jio has already grabbed over 15 per cent market share as of April due to its expansion in rural areas where it added over 96 lakh subscribers in April alone.

After disrupting the telecom market, his company, which is also the world's largest producer of polyester fibre, is now aiming to launch another blitzkrieg with its plan to connect 50 million homes with its high-speed optic fibre network, under which it has already invested Rs 250,000 crore for creating digital infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the Alibaba Group Holding stock is down nearly 10 per cent from its 52-week high of $211.7 in mid-June. Currently, it stands at $190 on the New York Stock Exchange. The decline in stock has led to falling in the Chinese e-commerce giant's market capitalisation.