Mukesh Ambani retains the richest Indian title in Global Rich List; Mumbai is home to 42 billionaires

Hurun Report today released the Hurun Global Rich List India, a list of the richest people in India featured in the Hurun Global rich list with a cut-off of US$1bn. This is the 6th year of the list, which has become a benchmark for the private sector. For all conversion purposes the US Dollar to Indian Rupees is Rs 68.1/ US Dollar.
 
Mukesh Ambani, 59 (Global Rank: 28): With a fortune of Rs 175,400 crore (US$26bn), oil and telecom mogul and the chairman of Reliance, Mukesh Ambani, topped the list of 132 individuals. In addition to his aggressive plans for his oil business, Mukesh Ambani is now focusing on his new telecom venture, Jio, which has acquired more than 100 crore customers in less than 6 months. This aggressive price war has dragged down other local players such as Idea, Airtel; In fact Idea registered a record loss of Rs 384 crore in Q3 2016 and is planning on a merger with Vodafone to survive the competition.
 
With a net worth of Rs 101,000 crore (US$14bn), S.P. Hinduja & family, 81 (Global Rank: 74), the business tycoon and the primary shareholder and chairman of Hinduja Group. The family lives in Carlton House Terrace, in the heart of London's Westminster neighborhood. All four brothers are known by the initials GP, SP, PP and AP. The conglomerate's Hinduja National Power Corp. unit is setting up a 1,040-megawatt thermal power plant in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. Hinduja Group, the industrial conglomerate controlled by four billionaire brothers is vying for SunEdison Inc.'s Indian solar assets Dilip Shanghvi, 60 (Global Rank: 74): India’s richest pharma magnate and the founder of Sun Pharmaceuticals, drops to 3^rd position because of a 22% decline in his wealth of Rs 99,000 crore (US$14bn), fueled by 18% drop of Sun Pharma shares, his flagship company. Earlier this year, he withdrew his plans to form a payment bank venture in India.
 
“India had a tough year because of disruptive government policies such as demonetisation drive. However, on a long term perspective, we do believe that such transparent currency economics will have a positive impact for the entrepreneurs”, said Anas Rahman Junaid, Managing Director and Chief Researcher, Hurun Report India.
 
Pallonji Mistry, 86 (Global Rank: 97) Indian construction tycoon is on the fourth position. Mistry is the largest individual shareholder in Tata Sons. He is worth Rs 82,700 crore (US$12bn) equaling the entire market capitalization of Tata Motors, one of India’s largest automaker. Cyrus Mistry's removal as the Chairman of Tata Sons’ has cast a shadow on the ties between the two families and hence the dispute has affected value of his 18% stake in Tata Sons.
 
Table1: Indian billionaires in Hurun Global Rich List 2017 – Top 10

Source: Hurun Global Rich list; Hurun India Rich list
 
Lakshmi N Mittal, 64 (Global Rank: 97) chairman of Arcelor Mittal, the world’s largest steel maker by output, ranks fifth position with Rs 81,800 crore (US$12bn) and is one of the world’s five largest producers of iron ore. In 2016, the world's largest steel producer Arcelor Mittal has also offered a joint bid with Italy's Marcegaglia to buy Ilva, Italy’s steel plant. His wealth increased by 76% backed by the recovery in the metals and mining industry – a situation that has made Arcelor Mittal profitable since last 5 years.
 
Shiv Nadar, 71 (Global Rank: 97), an Indian Industrialist and Philanthropist also ranked no 6 with Rs 81,200 crore (US12bn). The chairman and founder of HCL Technologies, Nadar, is the Most Generous Indian as he donated most of his wealth for infrastructure projects in universities. His daughter Roshni Nadar, 40, is currently leading the diversification of HCL to healthcare and skills training business. They also support art and own an extensive art collection.
 
Cyrus S Poonawalla, 75 (Global Rank: 106), India’s 7th richest man and also known as the vaccine billionaire has a personal fortune of Rs 75,400 crore (US$11bn). His privately owned firm, Serum Institute, which was set up 50 years ago, saw an increase in revenue and profit. He has an extensive art collection and sports cars as well. He has donated Rs 100 crore towards Indian philanthropy and is also planning on setting up a parallel plant in Pune for European expansion. The Poonawalla family also owns India’s largest stud farm – The Poonawalla Stud Farm.
 
Azim Premji, 71 (Global Rank: 134), the tech mogul, is the 8th richest Indian with a wealth of Rs 66,300 crore (US$9.7bn), a 26% increase from last year. About 40% of Wipro is owned by a philanthropic trust that works to improve conditions in Indian villages. 
 
With a networth of Rs 49,200 crore (US$7.2bn), Uday Kotak, 57 (Global Rank: 134), the CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank is one of the most powerful people in the financial world and is the only individual from the banking sector in the list.
 
David Rueben (74) and Simon Rueben (75), the Rueben brothers (Global Rank: 207), share the 10th position with a fortune of Rs 45,600 crore (US$6.7bn) with a rise in 29% in their wealth from last year. The Rueben brothers are majority owners of Global Switch and their Reuben Foundation focuses on healthcare and educational causes.
 
Mumbai Tops again
With 132 individuals from the Hurun India Global List 2017, Mumbai is the capital for India’s super-rich, followed by Delhi (21) and Ahmedabad (9). 
 
Table 2: Geographical spread of Indian Billionaires in Hurun Global Rich List 2017

Source: Hurun Global Rich list; Hurun India Rich list
 
Maharashtra contributes most no. of billionaires in Hurun Global Rich List 2017
Table 2.1: Indian Billionaires State wise spread

 
Pharmaceutical sector rules
 
The top performing sector is pharmaceutical with 21 billionaires out of 132 billionaires from the list followed by Manufacturing and TMT. Other industries that had a good year include Consumer Products, Automobile and Real estate.
 
Table 3: Industry wise Billionaire segregation of Indian Billionaires

Source: Hurun Global Rich list; Hurun India Rich list
 
9 Female billionaires with US$1bn or more
Savitri Jindal & family tops the female billionaire list consecutively with a net worth of Rs 31,500 crore (US$4.6bn). Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is the only self-made female entrepreneur from India ranked 69^th in self-made women billionaires globally witnessed an 89% increase in wealth to Rs 12,900 crore (US$1.9bn), but has also received help from parents or through private education or strong network.
 
Table 4: Hurun Global Rich List 2017 – Richest Women in India

Source: Hurun Global Rich list; Hurun India Rich list
 
 
Industry analysis
 
Pharmaceuticals
 
21 billionaires in the Hurun Global Rich List are from pharmaceuticals and this sector has grown rapidly. B Parthasaradhi Reddy (Global Rank: 1233) with Rs 12,500 crore (US$1.8bn) is a new entrant to the list; followed by K. Satish Reddy (Global Rank: 2113), the chairman of Dr. Reddy's Lab has a fortune of Rs 6,900 crore (US$1.0bn).
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (Global Rank: 1172), the only self-made women billionaire has a personal fortune of Rs 12,900 crore (US$1.9bn) in Biocon.
 
Manufacturing
 
About 13 Indian billionaires are in the manufacturing sector, with the total of Rs 252,016 crore (US$37bn) of wealth. S.P. Hinduja & family (Global Rank: 74) of Hinduja Group, is the largest billionaire in the manufacturing sector with the net worth of Rs 101,000 crore (US$14bn).Balkrishan Goenka (Global Rank: 1952), chairman of Welspun Group with interests in textiles, pipes and energy; is a new entrant and has a net worth of Rs 7,500 crore (US$1.1bn)
 
TMT
 
The TMT sector has produced 13 individuals in the Hurun Global Rich List. Shiv Nadar (Global Rank: 97) of HCL tops the list with networth of Rs 81,200 crore (US$1bn). Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Global Rank: 1479) of Paytm and Dinesh Nandwana (Global Rank: 2113) of Vakranjee Software are the newest entries to Hurun Global Rich List.
 
Real estate
 
9 individuals on the Hurun Global Rich List derived their wealth from the Real estate sector. Jithendra Virwani of Embassy Property Developments is the new billionaire entrant to the list with a personal fortune of Rs 8,900 crore. The Rueben Brothers, David and Simon, the founder of Global Switch, saw their billionaire fortunes increase by 29% to Rs 45,600 crore each.
 
Other markets.
 
BSE Sensex grew 11% and NSE Nifty 13% over the last one year.
BSE Metals Index has grown by 66%, in last one year, Arcelor Mittal gained over 76%
BSE Auto Index has grown by 25%, Motherson Sumi System grown by 83% followed by
BSE Tech and BSE Telecom Index has declined by 7% and 8% respectively.
 
 
Billionaires Residing Outside of India
 
With 13 billionaires, Dubai is the most preferred destination for immigration, followed by UK with 7 and USA with 6. With Rs 101,000 crore, SP Hinduja and family of Hinduja Group is the wealthiest immigrant into UK. With fortune of Rs 42,200 crore, M.A Yusuf Ali is the wealthiest immigrant into UAE.
 
Table 5: Billionaires Residing Outside of India

 Source: Hurun Global Rich list; Hurun India Rich list
 
 
27 New Entrants from India – Hurun Global Rich List 2017
 
With a wealth of Rs 24,900 crore, Acharya Balakrishna of Patanjali Ayurveda, tops the list followed by Nadir Godrej and Smitha V Crishna. Due to the current government policy support towards cashless economy, Vijay Shekhar Sharma,38, the founder of Paytm has registered a net increase in his wealth. He also ventured into ecommerce through a JV with Alibaba. Div Turakhai, 35, of Directi successfully sold his company media.net to Miteno, a Chinese conglomerate, at a valuation of circa US$1bn.
 
Table 6: Hurun Global Rich List 2017: India, new entrants

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2017
 
Degree of self-madeness
 
Hurun Report measures the degree to which billionaires are inherited or self-made. The scorecard is out of five, where 1 is inherited and not active in business, and 5 is self-made without help from parents.
 
The first category focuses on self-made billionaires without the help from parents and Shiv Nadar (self-made 5) falls into this category. The second category, Self-made with a little help from parents, is the most common route in becoming a billionaire. Eg. Dilip Shanghvi (self-made 4). The third focuses is inheritance of business and growing it into a much bigger entity, eg Mukesh Ambani (self-made 3). The fourth category is the inheritance of business which eventually declined. Eg. Anil Ambani. (Self-made 2)  The fifth category is the inheritance of business and is not active. Eg Savitri Jindal & family (self-made 1)
 
Table 7: Top Indian billionaire by wealth in each degree of self-madeness

Source: Hurun Global Rich list; Hurun India Rich list
 
Comparative study of Hurun’s India and Chinese Billionaires
Chinese has 608 billionaires almost six times bigger than India with 100 billionaires.  Interestingly the average wealth of Indian billionaires (US$3.0bn) are 10% higher than their Chinese (US$2.7bn) counterparts. In China there are 14 individuals having a networth of UD$10.0bn or more compared to 5 individuals in India.

 On a sectorial front manufacturing (21%), Real Estate (21%) and TMT (13%) are the major sectors contributing Chinese wealth. On the other hand pharmaceuticals (20%), manufacturing (10%) and TMT (10%) are sector contributing bulk of India’s wealth. 
 
Table 8: Indians in Hurun Global Rich List 2017