D

LF’s K P Singh — KP to his

friends — an army officer

who quit the service to join

his father-in-law’s Delhi Land

& Finance in 1961, became, in

2007, after he listed the firm, the

world’s richest real estate baron. The

offering helped him boost his fortune

to Rs 85,666 crore on his company's

listing day in 2007. In January 2009, a

50 per cent drop in demand and a 20

per cent drop in real estate prices, and

correction in real estate stocks, saw

him lose Rs 31,657 crore or 63 per cent

of his wealth. The melt-

down has forced one of

India’s biggest real es-

tate developers to defer

plans to raise another

$1.5 billion by listing

an arm in Singapore.

Fellow developer

Unitech’s Ramesh

Chandra was worse off.

The sixth richest man

in India in 2008

dropped 20 places to

26th rank in 2009 as

the correction in realty

stocks saw his wealth

shrink by Rs 52,788

crore or 93 per cent. A

structural engineer,

Chandra moved into real estate in 1985

to build middle-class homes. The cred-

it crunch and fall in stock prices has re-

strained the developer’s ability to raise

money to fund Unitech’s homes, of-

fices and shopping malls in Delhi’s

suburbs, and across other cities in the

country.

In many ways, the change in for-

tunes of these two developers sum-

marises the story of the country’s bil-

lionaires this year. The law of nature

has been brutal on them — the bigger

they were, the larger has been their loss

of wealth. Mukesh Ambani, the coun-

try’s wealthiest Indian, lost Rs 1,39,925

crore, or 58 per cent of his wealth, as

his flagship Reliance Industries fell on

concerns of flagging demand for petro-

leum and petrochemicals in its key ex-

port markets in the West, and the delay

in kicking off gas supplies from the

Krishna-Godavari basin.

Brother Anil Ambani, the second

wealthiest Indian, lost Rs 1,10,082

crore, or 66 per cent of his wealth, as

his flagship Reliance Communications

fell in line with the broader market

even as buyout talks with South

African telco MTN failed. Mega power

projects under Reliance Power will test

his execution skills.

While the brothers retained the top

two slots, telecom czar Sunil Mittal

swapped places with DLF promoter K P

Singh to move up a rank to No 3, while

Singh settled for No 4 despite eroding

his wealth 80 per cent.

Several billionaires in the realty and

infrastructure space lost 80-89 per cent

of their wealth this year. This included

JK Jain of Jai Corp (his son Anand Jain,

is a close associate of RIL CMD Mukesh

Ambani), which is setting up two SEZs

near Mumbai; PNC Menon and family

of Shobha Developers; Ravi Purvankara

of Purvankara Projects; Rakeshkumar

Wadhawan of HDIL. Perhaps the only

exceptions were Vyomesh M Shah and

Mahipatray V Shah of Akruti City, who

lost only 41 per cent of their wealth.

Among the biggest losers was Tulsi

Tanti of Suzlon Energy, who fell eight

places in the billionaire rankings to set-

tle at 20th place. Tanti lost 86 per cent

in the 12 months trailing January 2009

as the wind turbine maker’s stock came

under fire after Edison International,

one of its biggest customers in the US,

cancelled an order for 150 turbines af-

ter cracks appeared in the rotor blades.

Customers were reassured only when

Suzlon shipped out new turbines made

of reinforced plastic. Its biggest acqui-

sition, Repower (which makes large

turbines), has been a roller-coaster

ride. Its initial financ-

ing plans fell through

when markets crum-

bled. In late December,

it announced it would

pay ¤270m to increase

its stake to 91 per cent,

as required under Ger-

man law to control the

company. In early Janu-

ary, Suzlon sold a 10

per cent stake in its Bel-

gium arm, Hansen, to a

London-based invest-

ment firm for an undis-

closed amount. This

could help Tanti bridge

the gap and gain control

of Repower.

Another big loser was metals maven

Anil Agarwal, with interests in alu-

minium, copper and iron ore, who saw

his wealth shrink by Rs 43,176 crore or

63 per cent. While much of this was

due to the fall in commodity prices,

Agarwal also paid the price for an ill-

advised restructuring plan, aborted im-

mediately after a few institutional in-

vestors opposed it for favouring pro-

moters.

Of the 44 top losers whose net

worth is down over 80 per cent, 25 are

from realty related sectors. Billionaires

in commodities, oil, agriculture and

metals lost over 70 per cent each. The

cement and steel billionaires lost heav-

ily on government efforts to control ris-

ing inflation.

Defying the trend

A few billionaires added to their

wealth in an otherwise gloomy year for

wealth-makers. Nitin Sandesara, the

CMD of Sterling Biotech, increased his

wealth by Rs 806 crore, or 28.54 per

cent, by creating a globally-competitive

gelatine business. In the mid-1990s,

the Sandesaras exited the traditional

tea-trading business to set up a plant to

manufacture gelatine at Karakhadi near

Vadodara. They were looking to enter a

business that would be globally com-

petitive, high-tech and high-growth

with strong entry barriers. In less than

a decade, Sterling has emerged as the

largest gelatin manufacturer in Asia,

with key customers in the US.

Sterling’s advantage is access to cheap-

er raw material (bovine bones, which it

sources 30-60 per cent cheaper than

plants in the West) and labour, helping

it emerge among the lowest cost pro-

ducers.

THE LAW OF

NATURE HAS BEEN

BRUTAL WITH OUR

BILLIONAIRES —

THE BIGGER THEY

WERE, THE LARGER

HAS BEEN THEIR

LOSS OF WEALTH.

MUKESH AMBANI

LOST 58 PER CENT

OF HIS WEALTH

POOR LITTLE

RICH BOYS The meltdown has wiped away 61 per cent of the wealth of the country’s

top billionaires. B G SHIRSAT & RANJU SARKAR report

THE COMPANY OF CROREPATIS

Rank Wealth (Rs crore)

‘08 ‘09 Promoters Flagship company Industry Jan '08 Jan '09

1 1 MUKESH AMBANI Reliance Ind Refineries 2,42,902.02 1,02,976.76

2 2 ANIL AMBANI Reliance Communications Telecommunication 1,66,308.96 56,226.71

4 3 SUNIL MITTAL Bharti Airtel Telecommunication 77,776.69 55,027.08

3 4 K P SINGH & FAMILY DLF Realty 1,56,400.46 31,657.29

7 5 AZIM PREMJI Wipro IT 53,470.03 27,246.74

5 6 ANIL AGARWAL Sterlite Ind Metals 68,727.81 25,551.66

8 7 GAUTAM S ADANI Adani Enterprises Trading 53,332.89 17,661.54

16 8 DILIP S SHANGHVI Sun Pharma Pharmaceutical 15,949.03 15,047.99

10 9 KUMAR MANGALAM BIRLA Grasim Industries Diversified 38,462.81 13,256.32

57 10 MALVINDER & SHIVINDER SINGH Religare Enterprises Diversified 10,611.88 12,184.30

50 11 SAURAV TAYAL FAMILY Jaybharat Textiles Textiles 5,643.57 11,085.81

9 12 PRITHVIRAJ, SAJJAN & NAVEEN JINDAL Jindal Steel Metals 40,784.05 11,010.94

12 13 G M RAO GMR Infrastructure Infrastructure 28,588.16 10,180.67

18 14 SHIV NADAR HCL Technologies IT 14,686.51 5,953.34

27 15 RAHUL BAJAJ Bajaj Auto Automobiles 10,323.17 5,890.29

14 16 VIJAY MALLYA United Breweries Breweries 22,345.63 5,825.03

15 17 UDAY KOTAK Kotak Mahindra Bank Bank 21,857.51 5,811.47

44 18 Y K HAMIED Cipla Pharmaceutical 6,109.73 5,712.24

38 19 V C BURMAN FAMILY Dabur FMCG 6,734.65 5,389.03

11 20 TULSI R TANTI Suzlon Energy Capital goods 38,300.17 5,215.78

21 21 KALANITHI MARAN Sun TV Network Media-entertainment 11,605.47 5,070.51

66 22 BRIJMOHAN LALL MUNJAL Hero Honda Automobiles 4,041.05 4,596.39

13 23 JAIPRAKASH GAUR Jaiprakash Associates Cement 23,975.03 4,411.82

34 24 VYOMESH M SHAH & MAHIPATRAY V SHAH Akruti City Realty 7,171.00 4,227.86

54 25 ASHWIN CHOKSI, ASHWIN DANI, ABHAY VAKIL Asian Paints FMCG 5,279.77 4,203.21

6 26 RAMESH CHANDRA Unitech Realty 56,965.44 4,177.05

22 27 ADI GODREJ Godrej Industries FMCG 11,598.21 4,034.66

20 28 SUBHASH CHANDRA Zee Entertainment Media-entertainment 12,131.50 4,005.43

49 29 MURALI KRISHNA PRASAD DIVI Divi's Lab Pharmaceutical 5,836.05 3,819.60

94 30 NITIN SANDESARA Sterling Biotech Pharmaceutical 2,825.06 3,631.20

58 31 N R NARAYANA MURTHY Infosys Technologies IT 4,821.72 3,468.29

— 32 S KISHORE & K A SASTRY KSK Energy Power NR 3,157.43

35 33 GLENN SALDHANHA Glenmark Pharma Pharmaceutical 7,056.91 3,081.56

30 34 KESHUB MAHINDRA Mahindra & Mahindra Automobiles 8,338.01 2,951.48

— 35 VIRENDRA D MHAISKAR IRB Infrastructure Developers Realty NR 2,858.72

45 36 SUDHIR MEHTA Torrent Pharma Pharmaceutical 6,046.24 2,725.48

25 37 SHASHI & RAVI RUIA Essar Oil Refineries 10,551.11 2,535.29

90 38 PANKAJ R PATEL Cadila Healthcare Pharmaceutical 2,853.93 2,517.43

105 39 D B GUPTA Lupin Pharmaceutical 2,422.92 2,481.01

63 40 SRIRAM THYGARAJ Shriram Transport Finance Financial services 4,212.00 2,463.21

28 41 B N KALYANI Bharat Forge Auto ancillaries 10,095.33 2,457.96

72 42 AJAY PIRAMAL Piramal Healthcare Pharmaceutical 3,441.40 2,430.34

75 43 NANDAN M NILEKANI Infosys Technologies IT 3,326.99 2,393.12

81 44 S GOPALAKRISHNAN Infosys Technologies IT 3,230.56 2,323.76

47 45 GAUTAM THAPAR Crompton Greaves Capital goods 5,992.60 2,323.09

52 46 KISHORE BIYANI Pantaloon Retail Retail 5,536.72 2,321.81

32 47 B K GOENKA Welspun India Textiles 7,647.96 2,223.37

101 48 HARSH C MARIWALA Marico FMCG 2,611.69 2,207.99

39 49 R P GOENKA CESC Diversified 6,731.49 2,199.08

40 50 RAJAN RAHEJA Exide Ind Diversified 4,319.60 2,107.03

India’s top five: While Mukesh and

Anil Ambani retained the top two

slots, telecom czar Sunil Mittal

traded places with DLF’s K P Singh

to emerge third richest, and Azim

Premji moved up two notches

BIG, BIGGER, BIGGEST

Continued on page 3

Continued on page 3

TOP 100 BILLIONAIRES: HOW THEY STACK UP

ILLUSTRATION BY BINAY SINHA

The other big surprise was

Saurabh Tayal, chairman of KSL and

Industries, who gained Rs 5,442

crore, or 96 per cent in wealth. A

third-generation scion of an old tex-

tile family, Tayal has

transformed the

50-year-old textile

business and forayed

into real estate — the

group is developing

properties in several

locations. While

many textile ex-

porters are grappling

with the US scrap-

ping of the textile

quota regime, KSL’s

revenue and net

profits have grown

36 per cent and 116 per cent respec-

tively year-on-year over three years

till March 2007, helping it emerge

among the top five companies in the

mid-cap space (Rs 100-500 crore) in

a study last year. Tayal’s growth was

fuelled by acquisitions as KSL

bought ailing textile rivals including

Surat Co-operative Mills, Kamlesh-

war Textile Mills, Empress Textile

Mills and Deccan Co-operative

Mills. These gave KSL the opportu-

nity to develop land banks, and the

group is developing 15 realty proj-

ects: townships, hotels, commercial

complexes, malls, multiplexes, and

warehouses across Maharashtra,

Punjab and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

Among other billionaires who de-

fied a falling market

and increased their

wealth are Lupin

Laboratories’ D B

Gupta, who added

Rs 58 crore, or 2 per

cent, to his wealth in

the 12 months trail-

ing January 2009;

pharma billionaires

Dilip Shanghvi of

Sun Pharma and Y K

Hamied of Cipla

managed to retain

their wealth. The

biggest gainers were brothers

Malvinder and Shivinder Singh,

who sold their 34.86 per cent stake

in Ranbaxy Laboratories to Japan’s

Daiichi Sankyo at a hefty premium

to its current stock price. They

added Rs 1,572 crore to their com-

bined wealth, taking their net worth

to Rs 10,611 crore. Had they not sold

out, they would have been poorer by

Rs 4,654 crore.

Brijmohan Lall Munjal, patriarch

of the Hero Group, managed to hold

on to his wealth on the basis of a

good show by the flagship Hero Hon-

da, which consolidated its share of

the two-wheelers market at the cost

of rivals like Bajaj and TVS Motors.

A few others who defied the odds in-

cluded Chandir Gidwani and

Khushroo P Byramjee of Centrul

Capital, Sudhir Shankar Moravekar

of Panoramic Universal (hotels),

Prem Adip of MVL (constructions)

and Harish Belwal of Intra Infotech.

These billionaires had the highest

increase in wealth in percentage

terms.

Of India’s 367 billionaires, only

17 are new entrants, including 14

who took their companies public.

Sixty-eight billionaires in 2008 were

also dollar billionaires (rupee:dollar

conversion rate of Rs 39.37 for Janu-

ary 2008), but in 2009, only 20 figure

as dollar billionaires (rupee:dollar

exchange rate of Rs 48.88 for

January 2009).

Prominent among those who’ve

ceased to be dollar billionaires are

Kalanithi Maran of Sun TV,

Jaiprakash Gaur of Jaiprakash Asso-

ciates, Glenn Saldhanha of Glen-

mark Pharma, Brijmohan Lall Mun-

jal of Hero Honda, Subhash Chandra

of Zee Entertainment, and Adi Go-

drej of Godrej group.

Despite the sharp corrections in

their stocks, the realty, infrastruc-

ture and construction sector pro-

duced 46 billionaires, followed by

capital goods (including engineer-

ing) and pharmaceuticals (32 each),

IT (31), diversified (27), metals (25),

media and textiles (21 each). Auto-

mobiles, financial services, FMCG

and cement sectors together added

65 billionaires, while the remaining

104 billionaires were from sectors

such as services, retail, sugar,

telecom, trading, and gems and

jewellery.

Falling out of favour

The fall in the Sensex saw 207 bil-

lionaires drop out of the 2009 Bil-

lionaire Club. Among the well-

known were IT entrepreneurs Atul K

Nishar (Hexaware), M V Srinivas

(Northgate Technologies) and K Pad-

manabhan (Teledatata Informatics),

and Hyderabad-based infrastructure

developers like Nama Nageswar Rao

and Nama Seethaiah of Madhucon

Projects, and D S Chandra Mohan

Reddy of Prajay

Realty developers like Lalit Gand-

hi and Naina Shah of Lok Housing,

and Deepak Kulkarni of DS Kulkarni

& Brothers, who became billionaires

on the back of their IPOs, could not

sustain their position. Big investors

like Vinod Khosla (Praj Industries),

Ranjitsinh A Parmar (Suzlon Ener-

gy), Vivek Mundra (Aban Offshore),

Bharat K Sheth (Financial Technolo-

gies — though he remains MD of

Great Eastern Shipping), GR

Gopinath (Kingfisher Airlines) and

Vineet Nayyar also went off the list

as the value of their investments fell

sharply.

The poster boys of media and en-

tertainment who exited from the list

included Ajay Bijli of PVR, Subhash

Ghai of Mukta Arts, Nirmal N

Kotecha and P S Saminatha of Pyra-

mid Saimira, Anuradha Shukla of

BAG Films & Media, Rasesh B

Kanakia of Cinemax India, and Raa-

jhendhran of Raj TV. Key pharma-

ceutical players excluded from The

Billionaire Club are the Sarabhai

family of Ambalal Sarabhai Enter-

prises, K R Ravishankar and Arun

Kumar of Strides Arcolab, and S De-

vendra of Sashun Chemicals.

Casualties in auto components

included Jag Mohan Kapur of Sona

Kayo Steering, Arvind Kapur of Rico

Auto, and D K Jain of Lumax. Sever-

al billionaires in the metals space,

especially of midcap companies,

also fell by the wayside after riding

the commodity cycle for two years. �

Rank Wealth (Rs crore)

‘08 ‘09 Promoters Flagship company Industry Jan '08 Jan '09

17 51 RAKESHKUMAR WADHAWAN HDIL Realty 15,812.50 2,080.86

62 52 NUSLI WADIA Bombay Dyeing Diversified 4,224.87 2,079.53

64 53 MANOJ G TIRODKAR GTL IT 4,185.71 2,065.26

70 54 PRS OBEROI EIH Services-hotels 3,532.71 2,038.68

24 55 LAGADAPATI MADHUSUDAN RAO Lanco Infratech Engineering 11,114.12 2,018.01

74 56 MURUGAPPAN FAMILY EID Parry Diversified 3,389.69 2,002.10

61 57 SHANTANU PRAKASH Educomp Solutions IT 4,226.35 1,950.09

33 58 G V KRISHNA REDDY GVK Power & Infra Infrastructure 7,444.48 1,948.53

96 59 K ANJI REDDY Dr Reddy's Labs Pharmaceutical 2,772.75 1,931.99

79 60 B K PARKEH & FAMILY Pidilite Ind Chemicals 3,265.69 1,842.39

59 61 SAMIR JAIN & FAMILY Entertainment Network Media-entertainment 4,616.66 1,756.06

106 62 K DINESH Infosys Technologies IT 2,420.50 1,741.08

80 63 RAJJU D SHROFF United Phosphorus Pesticides 3,232.00 1,682.86

29 64 V N DHOOT & FAMILY Videocon Ind Diversified 9,916.80 1,633.46

41 65 RAGHAV BAHL TV18 Media-news 6,482.12 1,626.41

36 66 SATYA NARIAN PRAKASH PUNJ Punj Lloyd Constructions 6,842.70 1,578.21

48 67 HINDUJA BROTHERS Hinduja TMT Diversified 5,917.18 1,564.54

102 68 VIVEK CHAAND SEHGAL Motherson Sumi Auto ancillaries 2,572.62 1,550.10

108 69 S D SHIBULAL Infosys Technologies IT 2,121.56 1,526.04

26 70 REJI ABRAHAM Aban Offshore Oil exploration 10,407.97 1,400.98

82 71 KIRAN MAZUMDAR SHAW Biocon Pharmaceutical 3,131.96 1,381.56

85 72 RAKESH & REKHA JHUNJHUNWALA Investor Diversified 3,078.69 1,362.79

69 73 VENU SRINIVASAN & SURESH KRISHNA TVS Motors Automobiles 3,743.09 1,317.84

51 74 ANU AGA Thermax Capital goods 5,552.91 1,304.24

128 75 R S AGARWAL Emami FMCG 1,817.91 1,279.48

97 76 KARSANBHAI KHODIDAS PATEL Nirma FMCG 2,771.65 1,279.48

43 77 ASHOK SARIN & ANIL SARIN Anant Raj Ind Realty 6,349.53 1,238.63

77 78 B G BANGUR Shree Cement Cement 3,295.66 1,232.43

129 79 SANDIP & SANJAY JHUNJHUNWALA Rei Agro Agro products 1,817.22 1,199.54

144 80 SHASHI KIRAN SHETTY Allcargo Global Logistics 1,563.59 1,189.67

46 81 NARESH GOYAL Jet Airways Aviation 6,004.01 1,185.39

42 82 NIMESH NAGINDAS KAMPANI JM Financial Financial services 6,477.58 1,119.12

83 83 SHYAM SUNDER BHARTIA Jubilant Organosys Chemicals 3,123.32 1,080.41

180 84 MAM RAMASWAMY & GEETHA MUTHIAH Chettinad Cement Cement 1,141.96 1,051.63

92 85 K M SHETH & FAMILY G E Shipping Shipping 2,834.48 1,047.23

56 86 JIGNESH P SHAH Financial Technology IT 4,890.04 1,029.69

121 87 BS & GS SAWHNEY, DPS KOHILI Koutons Retail Retail 1,962.48 1,016.50

53 88 S N KIRLOSKAR Kirloskar Brothers Engineering 5,353.15 1,007.45

– 89 ISMAIL G MEMON & FAMILY KGN Industries Miscellaneous NR 985.75

116 90 P K KHURANA Everest Kanto Cylinder Packaging 1,992.46 978.39

134 91 ABHIJIT RAJAN Gammon India Engineering 1,737.12 948.50

73 92 H F KHORAKIWALA Wockhardt Pharmaceutical 3,401.90 940.94

84 93 D P JINDAL Maharashtra Seamless Metals 3,087.01 913.39

19 94 J K JAIN Jai Corp Infrastructure 14,293.84 912.78

60 95 B G RAGHUPATHY BGR Energy Sys Engineering 4,269.41 897.17

55 96 B K BIRLA Century Textiles Diversified 4,981.00 891.19

115 97 H S BEDI Tulip Telecom Telecommunication 2,002.30 874.79

198 98 ARVIND T SHAH Asian Star Gems & Jewellery 1,033.36 872.51

37 99 ROHTAS GOEL & FAMILY Omaxe Realty 6,819.65 856.01

127 100 ANALJIT SINGH Max India Pharmaceutical 1,821.47 841.01

POOR LITTLE

RICH BOYScontinued from page 1

OF INDIA’S 367

BILLIONAIRES,

ONLY 17 ARE NEW

ENTRANTS,

INCLUDING 14

WHO TOOK THEIR

COMPANIES

PUBLIC

(From top) Metal merchant Anil

Agarwal’s wealth shrank by

63 per cent; Gautam S Adani lost

too; unlike Dilip Shanghvi, Kumar

Mangalam Birla and Malvinder

Singh of Religare who got richer

STACKING UP