[News Inside] Who Is 'This Person' Who Became Asia's Richest?

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries, India

▲Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries [Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] The person who surpassed Alibaba founder Jack Ma and Samsung's Lee Kun-hee to become the wealthiest individual in Asia.

He is Mukesh Ambani, chairman of India's conglomerate Reliance Industries.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index on the 16th, Ambani's assets increased by $21 billion this year, reaching a total of $79.5 billion (approximately 94 trillion KRW).

In terms of asset size ranking, he stands 6th after Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon, $186 billion), Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft, $112 billion), Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Facebook, $99 billion), Bernard Arnault (chairman of Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH), $82.9 billion), and Warren Buffett (CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, $79.7 billion).

Among the top 10, Ambani is the only Asian.

Reliance Industries, led by Ambani, originally started in the energy business and expanded its operations. Seeing telecommunications as a promising future sector, it entered the telecom field in 2010 through Reliance Jio. Leveraging the solid financial foundation built from the energy business, it launched aggressive marketing from the early stages of its telecom venture, surpassing existing operators like Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel. By 2020, it secured 390 million subscribers, establishing itself as India's largest telecom company.

▲Mukesh Ambani, Chairman (right), and his wife Nita Ambani (left) [Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

This year alone, he is also known as the individual who received the most investment love calls from billionaires worldwide. This is thanks to his foresight in recognizing the expansion potential of the Indian internet market and making preemptive investments. Facebook invested $5.7 billion (approximately 7.5 trillion KRW) in Reliance Jio, which is six times more than the amount it paid to acquire Instagram (about 1.2 trillion KRW).

Following Facebook's investment news, US private equity firms Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, and KKR all rushed to invest. Texas Pacific Group (TPG), a US PEF operator, and L Catterton, an investment firm affiliated with luxury goods company Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH), as well as 'oil money' from Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Mubadala, the sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have all bet on the Indian market. This year alone, Reliance Industries has received over $10 billion (approximately 12 trillion KRW) in investments.

Ambani is also famous for having the most dazzling network worldwide. His daughter, Isha Ambani, held a wedding in 2018 that was dubbed the 'wedding of the century' due to its ultra-luxurious guest list. Attendees included Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and singer Beyonc?. CEOs from Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Standard Chartered, as well as business magnates from Nokia, Ericsson, and HP, were also present.

Meanwhile, the cost of Isha Ambani's wedding alone was reportedly $100 million (approximately 112.9 billion KRW), which is said to be comparable to the expenses of the wedding of Britain's Prince Charles and Diana 37 years ago.