Indian richest man Mukesh Ambani is no longer Asia’s richest man, relinquishing the title to Jack Ma after oil prices collapsed along with global stocks.
Fears sporadically seem to have spread that novel coronavirus will thrust the world into a recession, erased $5.8 billion from Ambani’s net worth on Monday and dropped him to No. 2 on the list of Asia’s richest people.
As per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Ma, the Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. founder who was ousted from no. 1 ranking in mid-2018, is back on top with a $44.5 billion fortune, about $2.6 billion more than Ambani.
Oil prices took a downturn as Saudi Arabia and Russia vowed to pump more in a struggle for market share just as the coronavirus is spurring the first decline in demand in more than a decade.
It does indicate towards Ambani’s flagship Reliance Industries Ltd. can cut net debt to zero by early 2021, as he has pledged. The plan hinges on a proposal to sell a stake in the group’s oil and petrochemicals division to Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the world’s biggest producer.
The Coronavirus did affect Ali Baba Founder’s wealth but the damage done still seems easy enough to mitigate because of increased demand for its cloud computing services and mobile apps.
Reliance Industries do not owe that strong of a silver lining. The Indian company’s shares plummeted 12% on Monday, the most since 2009, extending this year’s decline to 26%. Alibaba’s American depositary receipts have slipped 6.8% so far in 2020.
In its pivot toward new businesses such as telecommunications, technology and retail, Reliance Industries have a big pile of debt accumulated from years.
