March 14, 2012, 3:11 am

India’s Billionaires Hit by Weak Economy

By NEHA THIRANI

 

 Lakshmi Mittal, chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer of ArcelorMittal during a press conference at the company headquarters in Luxembourg, Feb. 8, 2011. The number of Indian billionaires fell substantially in the past year, according to Forbes magazine’s recently released list of the world’s billionaires, while the numbers in emerging market rival Brazil rose dramatically. Increased transparency in Brazil and a slowing economy in India have contributed to this shift.
There are 48 Indians in the Forbes list, with a net worth of $ 194.6 billion. That compares to the previous year, when the Forbes list featured 55 billionaires from India with a net worth of $246.5 billion. Mukesh Ambani continues to be India’s wealthiest individual, despite losing $4.7 billion in the past year, coming in 19th in the global ranking with a net worth of $22.3 billion. His brother Anil Ambani, on the other hand, is listed in the 118th position, with a net worth of $7.8 billion, down a billion dollars from 2011. In 1994, the Ambani family were included in the Forbes list for the first time.
Azim Premji, the 66-year-old Wipro chairman, is ranked 41st, making him the third-richest Indian on the Forbes list. Mr. Premji has a net worth of $15.9 billion.
Indians were not the only ones whose net worth sank in the 2012 Forbes rankings; more than a third of all the billionaires internationally experienced a drop in their net worth.
Steel mogul Lakshmi Mittal suffered the biggest loss of all the world’s billionaires in the list, as his fortune dropped by $10.4 billion, to $20.7 billion. Mr. Mittal took the second spot among Indians, finishing 21st on the ranking, the first time since 2004 that he did make it to the world’s top ten. According to Forbes the drop was caused by a fall in the shares of ArcelorMittal, thanks to surging costs and sluggish demand in Europe.
Brothers Shashi and Ravi Ruia of the Essar Group sustained the second largest loss of the year, losing $8.8 billion according to Forbes. They were placed 133 on the rankings, with a net worth of $7 billion.
Other Indians who made it to the rankings include Kumar Birla, chairman of the Aditya Birla Group (116th), chairman of Sun Pharmaceuticals Dilip Shanghvi (124), Bharti Enterprises Chairman Sunil Mittal and family (113th) and DLF’s Kushal Pal Singh (153rd).
The list featured only two women billionaires from India; Savitri Jindal of the Jindal group, who was ranked 80th and Indu Jain of the Bennet Coleman group, ranked 578th.
When Forbes began to put together its list of the world’s billionaires in 1987, there were 140 names on the list, 44 of which were from the United States.
This year, the list is up to a record 1,226 with the U.S. still leading the list with 425 billionaires. The 2012 list has billionaires from 58 countries, including new addition Morocco. The total net worth of the billionaires listed by Forbes is $4.6 trillion, an increase of $100 billion from 2011. Mexico’s Carlos Slim retains his position at the top of the rankings with a fortune estimated at $69 billion. Brazilian oil magnate Eike Batista, currently placed at No. 7, vows to one day overtake him.
In the 2011 Forbes list, the BRIC nations were home to 25 percent of the world’s billionaires. In this year’s list, India, China and Russia collectively have 30 fewer billionaires, with Brazil being the only nation to see an increase in its numbers. While India lost seven billionaires in comparison to 2011, Brazil saw an increase of six new billionaires, bringing the countries tally to 36.
Among the newly ranked billionaires in Brazil is Nevaldo Rocha, who built his fortune in the apparel industry with his company Guararapes Confeccoes. Jose Isaac Peres joins the list because of a rise in the value of his stake in the shopping mall developer Multiplan while Francisco Dias Branco controls cookie and pasta maker M. Dias Branco and owns $1 billion worth of real estate.
One of factors that added billionaires from Brazil to the list is increased transparency in the country. Brazil has recently enacted stricter disclosure regulations for the ownership of publicly traded companies. Officials at Forbes say that there is a good chance that they will unearth more billionaires in Brazil in the coming years.