Anil Ambani no longer a billionaire

Anil Ambani, once the 6th richest man in the world, is no longer a billionaire, according to a Business Today report (https://www.businesstoday.in/current/corporate/anil-ambani-falls-off-billionaire-club-equity-wealth-crashes-from-usd-42-billion-to-usd-523-million/story/356735.html).

From a wealth of $42 billion in 2008, in 2019, the equity value of Anil Ambani's total businesses has now plummeted to Rs 3,651 crore. This includes substantial pledged shares.

The value of his un-encumbered equity on June 11, excluding invoked and pledged shares, is just about Rs 765 crore ($109 million). The report took a dig at the businessman’s fall by saying that it was “barely 2 times the $50 million tag of the Bombardier Global Express jet he flies”.

Anil Ambani’s ‘The Reliance Group’ was valued at over Rs 8,000 crore just four months back, before lenders invoked shares in his firms due to payment defaults. The drastic fall in value can be attributed to the sale of 42.88 per cent stake in its mutual fund joint venture - Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management (RNLAM).

Aggregate market cap of other group companies like Reliance Power (RPower), Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra), RCap, Reliance Naval and Engineering (RNaval), Reliance Home Finance (RHome) and the bankrupt Reliance Communications (RCom) stood at Rs 7,539 crore on June 11. RNaval has been dragged to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) by IDBI Bank last year which sought initiation of insolvency proceedings.

The report added that last week, Price Waterhouse & Co Chartered Accountants LLP (PwC) resigned as one of the statutory auditors of RCap and Rhome, which were earlier downgraded by three rating agencies. “PwC stated in a letter dated April 24 that Reliance Capital disputed the observations highlighted by it and did not convene an audit committee meeting within the expected time. The company also stated that it might initiate appropriate legal proceedings against the firm, as per PwC,” the report added.