Mukesh Ambani overtakes Jack Ma to be Asia's richest person
What's the story
India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, has now become Asia's richest man, overtaking Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma. On Friday, Mukesh Ambani was estimated to be worth $44.3bn, with Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) shares trading at Rs. 1,101, 1.7% higher than on Thursday. Meanwhile, Jack Ma's fortunes stood at $43.6bn at the time of writing. Here's more.
Upward trajectory
RIL has been on an upswing since its 41st AGM
It's worth noting that the value of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) shares have been rising steadily ever since Mukesh Ambani charted out his plans for the future at RIL's 41st AGM. A day back, RIL shares jumped, helping the energy-to-telecom conglomerate touch a market cap of $100bn after 11 long years. The consistent rise in valuation is an indication of investors' confidence in RIL.
Ambani's fortunes
Ambani has already added $4bn to his fortune this year
Mukesh Ambani has already added $4bn to his fortune this year after Reliance doubled its petrochemicals capacity. Additionally, investors have also hailed the success of Reliance Jio which completely disrupted the Indian telecom sector, and captured a huge chunk of users through its too-good-to-be-true offers. Now, Ambani is planning to leverage Jio's 215 million users to enter e-commerce and compete with the big players.
Expansion plans
Reliance has some busy months ahead of them
Earlier this month, at RIL's AGM, Ambani opined that he saw Reliance's "biggest growth opportunity in creating a hybrid, online-to-offline new commerce platform" involving both Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail. Additionally, Jio is also set to enter the wireless and fixed-line internet sector through the imminent launch of Jio GigaFiber, which is set to roll-out in a record 1,100 Indian cities starting August.
Track record
Ambani's track record speaks volumes
Considering that Mukesh Ambani is no stranger to proficiently executing projects of massive scale, investors' confidence in RIL seems to have proper precedent. Ambani has already successfully spearheaded the construction of the world's largest refinery complex in Jamnagar, Gujarat, and owns the world's most-widespread mobile data network. Given Ambani's track record, it's unlikely that he'll fail to execute RIL's planned expansion.