IMAGE: Gautam Adani. Photograph: PTI Photo

2022 noticed many lose the ‘billionaire’ tag, although a few of the richest Indian promoters have turn into even richer.

The variety of dollar-billionaire promoters in India (these with a internet value of $1 billion, or round Rs 8,241 crore/Rs 82.41 billion) has fallen to 120 from an all-time excessive of 142 on the finish of 2021.

Also, the billionaire promoters’ mixed wealth is down 8.8 per cent to round $685 billion (Rs 56.5 trillion) from $751.6 billion (Rs 56.62 trillion) a yr in the past.

The fall in rupee phrases will not be important because of its depreciation versus the US greenback.

A stark outperformer within the wealthy record is Gautam Adani, who has toppled Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, to turn into India’s richest particular person in 2022.

Adani’s internet value stands at $135.7 billion, up 69.6 per cent from $80 billion on the finish of 2021.

According to the Bloomberg knowledge, Adani is the richest particular person in Asia and third-richest on the earth.

In comparability, Ambani, who topped the record final yr, has seen a 2.5 per cent decline in his household’s internet value to $101.75 billion from $104.4 billion a yr in the past.

The internet value of people represents the worth of shares owned by relations and family-owned corporations/trusts as on December 23, 2022.

The market worth is internet of the cross-holdings of group corporations.

The divergent traits are available a yr when the fairness markets, in India and globally, have seen sharp swings because of worries over the Russia-Ukraine struggle, excessive inflation, volatility in commodity costs, and rising rates of interest in main economies, together with India.

The affect can also be seen within the record of India’s prime 10 billionaires, the place solely three — Adani, Dilip Shanghvi of Sun Pharma and Sunil Mittal of Bharti Airtel — have seen beneficial properties of their internet value.

Mittal’s beneficial properties are pushed by the rise of Bharti Airtel, which benefited from tariff hikes taken by cellular providers operators, readability over regulatory points, and a secure enterprise atmosphere.

Gains for Shanghvi are led by an improved efficiency of Sun Pharma, which benefited from a greater present in its specialty enterprise in North America and progress in its India formulations enterprise.

Radhakishan Damani of Avenue Supermarts (DMart) is India’s third-richest promoter with a internet value of $23.8 billion, down 21 per cent within the final one yr.

Damani’s internet value had obtained a lift post-pandemic when the share worth of DMart jumped about 2.5x between late March 2020 and end-December 2021.

The inventory has since declined as buyers betted on corporations that benefited from the opening up of Indian and world economies.

The operational weak point in DMart’s enterprise additionally led to the decline in its share worth.

Other promoters within the prime 10 record embrace Shiv Nadar of HCL Technologies; Ashwin Dani, Amrita Vakil and Manish Choksi of Asian Paints; Azim Premji of Wipro; Sanjiv and Rajiv Bajaj of Bajaj Group; and Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahindra Bank.

The continued rise of Adani in 2022 was powered by a powerful rally within the shares of most of his group corporations. His internet value has additionally been boosted by the acquisition of Ambuja Cements and ACC in May this yr, and thereafter New Delhi Television (NDTV).

These three have added practically $8.4 billion, or Rs 68,800 crore, to his internet value in CY22.

The yr began with the preliminary public supply of Adani Wilmar in January. This agency has added practically Rs 30,000 crore/Rs 30 billion ($3.5 bn) to Adani’s internet value.

So roughly, $12 billion, or a fifth of the rise of $55 billion in Adani’s internet value in 2022, has come from acquisitions and new itemizing.

With these beneficial properties in 2022, Adani’s internet value is up 581 per cent within the final three years from $19.9 billion on the finish of December 2019.

In the identical interval, the mixed wealth of all billionaires has risen by 93 per cent from $355 billion to round $685 billion now.

As a consequence, Adani now accounts for a fifth of the mixed internet value of all billionaires, as towards simply 5.6 per cent in December 2019.

The spectacular rise of Adani to the highest in 2022, nonetheless, is an exception, because the billionaire membership has shrunk and a majority of the richest promoters have seen a decline of their internet value because of a poor present within the fairness markets and a slowdown in IPOs after an enormous increase in 2021.

In all, 116 promoters with a internet value of greater than $1 billion on the finish of December 2021 have seen a decline of their wealth in 2022.

The benchmark Sensex is up 2.7 per cent in CY2022 (until December 23) in comparison with the top of December 2021, whereas the mixed market capitalisation of all BSE-listed corporations is up 2.3 per cent to Rs 272 trillion on this interval, as towards Rs 266 trillion on December 31, 2021.

Among the various exits from the billionaire’s membership in 2022 are D Uday Kumar Reddy of Tanla Solutions (internet value down 66 per cent), Sushil Kanubhai Shah of Metropolis Healthcare (down 65.7 per cent), Vijay Shekhar Sharma of One97 Communications (down 66 per cent), and C Ok Birla (down 43.4 per cent).

The yr additionally noticed the entry of Nirmal Jain and Venkataraman Rajamani of IIFL Finance and Rajesh Sharma of Capri Global Capital into the billionaire’s membership.

The two IIFL group promoters’ now have a mixed internet value of $1.06 billion, up 24.8 per cent from $0.85 billion on the finish of December 2021. Rajesh Sharma’s internet value is up 32.2 per cent to $1.2 billion from $0.91 billion a yr in the past.

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com