Shares of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani’s most valuable asset, declined about 15 percent from its 2013 peak on July 19 through yesterday. Reliance Industries’ profit beat analyst estimates for the fifth straight quarter as the rupee’s plunge boosted dollar-denominated earnings. Net income rose 19 percent to 53.5 billion rupees in the three months ended June 30 from a year earlier, the Mumbai-based company said last month.
Much of the output from Reliance’s two refineries at Jamnagar in the western state of Gujarat is exported and sold in the U.S. currency. A stronger dollar increases Reliance’s earnings in rupees.
Dilip Shanghvi, the founder of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., India’s biggest drug maker by market value, has shed $2 billion in net worth since May, the second-biggest loser among Indian billionaires. The 58-year-old has a fortune of $10.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg index. Shares of Sun Pharmaceutical fell 16 percent from a record on July 30 through yesterday.
Buying Debt
Kumar Mangalam Birla, the 46-year-old chairman of Aditya Birla Group, has lost about $950 million, or 11 percent, of his net worth since May, according to the index. Shares of Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd., his most valuable asset after iron-ore miner Essel Mining & Industries, plunged 17 percent from Aug. 14 through yesterday.
The Reserve Bank of India said Aug. 20 it will start buying government debt to pump funds into markets and consider reducing weekly sales of cash-management bills to rein in a surge in bond yields that threatened the economy. The central bank engineered a cash crunch in Asia’s third-largest economy last month to shore up the rupee.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index is a dynamic measure of the world’s wealthy based on changes in markets, the economy and Bloomberg reporting. Each net worth figure is updated every business day at 5:30 p.m. in New York. Stakes in publicly traded companies are valued using the share’s most recent closing price. Valuations are converted to U.S. dollars at current exchange rates.