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A tide of billionaires: Lakshmi Mittal is India’s richest, again

Anil Ambani

New York: Steel-maker Lakshmi N. Mittal is the richest Indian for the fourth year in a row with a wealth of $51 billion. But close behind is Mukesh Ambani, whose net worth soared to $49 billion, according to Forbes’ India’s 40 Richest list for 2007.

Closely following Mr. Mukesh Ambani is his younger brother Anil Ambani: with a wealth of $45 billion he takes the third spot, Forbes said.

Real estate tycoon Kushal Pal Singh of DLF elbowed out Wipro’s Azim Premji from the fourth spot in the list, which for the first time features all billionaires.

Kushal Pal Singh

“The four richest Indians are worth an astonishing $180 billion,” Forbes said, attributing the surge in wealth to a booming stock market.

The net worth of Mr. Mukesh Ambani has jumped from $30.5 billion to $49 billion, making him the year’s biggest gainer. Mr. Anil Ambani’s net worth increased to $45 billion from $30.2 billion.

Mr. Kushal Pal Singh has a net worth of $35 billion: after his company DLF was listed, he is the world’s richest real estate developer, Forbes said.

Lakshmi Mittal

“...[T]hanks to the roaring Mumbai stock market, with the benchmark index gaining as much as 53 per cent in the past year and a strong rupee that appreciated 12 per cent, for the first time, all India rich-listers are billionaires,” the magazine said in a report.

The minimum wealth required to make it to the list was $1.6 billion, against $790 million last year.

“In aggregate, their wealth surged to $351 billion, a bit more than double of last year’s $170 billion, making India’s 40 by far the wealthiest such group in all of Asia,” the magazine added.

Among the 54 Indian billionaires identified by Forbes, there are seven real estate developers with a net worth of over a billion dollars each.

Mukesh Ambani

Forbes said 29 of the people who returned to the list were richer than last year. The exception is Rahul Bajaj, whose fortune stayed flat at $2.3 billion.

Newcomers to the list include “Gautam Adani, who built [the] Mundra Port, Anand Jain, Mukesh Ambani’s school buddy and Gautum Thapar, whose Ballarpur Industries is India’s largest paper maker.”

Notable drop-offs include Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal. Among those who failed to make it are Infosys’ Nandan Nilekani and Senapathy Gopalakrishnan, and investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala. — PTI

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