Ambanis beat Premji to Forbes list

New Delhi: Corporate tycoons Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani have found life alone much richer, moving ahead of Wipro chief Azim Premji in 'India's 40 Richest' list.

According to Forbes magazine special report on India's 40 richest, NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal has maintained his top place with a net worth of $25 billion.

The Ambani brothers, who split their business empire last year, saw their fortune swell up this year with Mukesh's assets rising by $11.5 billion and Anil's net worth rose by $9.3 billion, grabbing the second and third places on the list respectively.

Though Azim Premji's net worth increased $3 billion to $14 billion from $11 billion in 2005, he slipped to the fourth position this year.

Whereas, real estate major DLF Group's chairman Kushal Pal Singh's fortune doubled this year to $10 billion from $5 billion in 2005.

On the back of robust real estate market in the country, the fortunes of the 40 richest Indians soared more than 60 per cent as compared to last years collective wealth.

In line with the rising fortunes, the minimum net worth needed to make it into the list rose substantially to $790 million in 2006 from $590 million in the previous year.

Despite the rise in minimum cut off, there are five new entrants in the list this year – SunTV owner Kalanithi Maran ($1.90 billion), Unitech promoter Ramesh Chandra ($5.30 billion) and Multi Commodity Exchange CEO Jignesh Shah ($0.84 billion).

This year's dropouts include, Biocon Ltd's Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.

Indians wallets growing fatter, faster

Wallets of India's richest businesspeople have swollen substantially in 2006 and are collectively carrying Rs 7.63 trillion ($170 billion), as compared to $106 billion a year ago.

India's top ten richest, including Lakshmi Mittal, Ambani brothers and Azim Premji, alone are worth $112 billion that accounts for two-thirds of the wealth of all 40 in the list.

Interestingly, the number of billionaires in the list has risen to 36, nine more than last year's 40 richest list, according to Forbes magazine.

With a collective wealth of $170 billion, the 40 richest businesspeople accounted for over 22 per cent of India's GDP, which stood at $775 billion in 2005-06.

The top ten richest alone were worth $112 billion. The ranking includes 36 billionaires, nine more than last year, with the bull run in the stock market playing a key role in inflating the fortunes of the business tycoons, besides the booming real estate market.

The minimum net worth needed to make the cut rose to $790 million up from $590 million previously, Forbes said.

Many of the billionaires, who feature in the list, have been hogging the media limelight for negotiating major deals, including Videocon Industries Chairman and Managing Director Venugopal Dhoot for engineering the Daewoo Electronics deal and Kumar Mangalam Birla for acquiring rival Tata's stake in telecom joint venture Idea.

For people with fortunes in publicly traded companies, net worth were calculated using November 6 market prices and exchange rates.

Privately held companies were valued by coupling estimates of revenues or profits to prevailing ratios for similar publicly traded companies.

India's 40 richest list

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