Mukesh Ambani: the Indian billionaire eyeing global expansion
Mukesh Ambani is already the richest man in India by a large margin, but his ambitions do not end there. He wants India to be at the front of the world’s next great leap forward.
![Mukesh Ambani © Subhankar Chakraborty/Hindustan Times via Getty Images](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Mub35nEsvChuaS3cg4ASyT-415-80.jpg)
Bad news for lovers of British department stores, says Bloomberg: India’s richest man has lost interest in Debenhams. Reports that Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail had emerged as a leading suitor for the dowdy chain, which collapsed into administration for the second time in a year in April, always seemed somewhat surprising. Ambani, after all, has plenty of other stuff to be getting on with – not least consolidating the extraordinary economic power he has amassed in India, where his Reliance conglomerate, juiced by a game-changing move into digital technology, is now increasingly described as “a state within a state”. As a former employee told the Financial Times: Ambani “wants to be Netflix, he wants to be Alibaba…He wants to be everything”.
Leading the fourth industrial revolution
The figures tell their own story, says Quartz. According to Forbes’ latest tally of the top 100 richest Indians, Ambani’s net wealth increased by 73% over the past year to nearly $89bn. He is now more than three times richer than the country’s second wealthiest person, industrialist Gautam Adani, who is “miles behind at $25.2bn”.
Shares in Ambani’s Reliance Industries – whose interests stretch from energy, via retail and media, to telecoms – have risen sharply this year, mostly due to the positive sentiment surrounding the company’s digital arm, Jio Platforms, which, in recent months has raised over $20bn from Western investors including Facebook and Google. Ambani reckons the world is embarking on a “fourth industrial revolution”, says the Indian daily Business Standard. Having largely missed out on the first three, India (or more specifically, the dynamic Jio Platforms) is poised to lead it.
Subscribe to MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE
![https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748-320-80.jpg)
Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
At 63, the camera-shy Ambani is still “not particularly recognisable outside of India”, says the Financial Times. But his “sober appearance” and the “deep bags under his eyes” belie his undoubted attraction to the “hoodie-wearing” bosses of Silicon Valley. For them, he is the human “gateway” into “one of the last great global growth stories”: India’s blossoming digital and consumer-led economy. When Facebook, previously thwarted by regulatory scuffles with the government, invested in Jio in April, it sparked an investment spree. “For Ambani, it marked the triumphant apex of a career remaking his father’s energy juggernaut into a conglomerate fit for the 21st century.”
A family feud
The Ambani family grew up idolising their father, Dhirubhai, who was born into poverty and built an industrial powerhouse from scratch, gaining renown as a political fixer unafraid to play hardball. Mukesh seems to be built in the same mould: his “single-minded pursuit of success and scale” has meant trampling over many standing in his path, “including his own brother”, Anil – the original telecoms entrepreneur of the family.
For more than a decade after their father’s death in 2002, India was gripped by the brothers’ bitter feud for control of his legacy. There’s no doubt who’s come out on top. Last year, Anil’s debt troubles were so acute he was days away from being jailed. Anil conveyed his “sincere and heartfelt thanks to my respected elder brother” when Mukesh delivered a last-minute bailout.
The recent drive into “Jio-politics” hasn’t done much to improve Mukesh’s image as an unloved billionaire, however, says the Financial Times. “Observers point to a near unparalleled ability to leverage his wealth, political nous and Reliance’s scale to build an ecosystem that works in his favour.” Government ministers and business rivals alike are “wary” of Ambani because he is so powerful. “There is a sense,” says one official, “that he needs to be handled with care.”
Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Jane writes profiles for MoneyWeek and is city editor of The Week. A former British Society of Magazine Editors editor of the year, she cut her teeth in journalism editing The Daily Telegraph’s Letters page and writing gossip for the London Evening Standard – while contributing to a kaleidoscopic range of business magazines including Personnel Today, Edge, Microscope, Computing, PC Business World, and Business & Finance.
She has edited corporate publications for accountants BDO, business psychologists YSC Consulting, and the law firm Stephenson Harwood – also enjoying a stint as a researcher for the due diligence department of a global risk advisory firm.
Her sole book to date, Stay or Go? (2016), rehearsed the arguments on both sides of the EU referendum.
She lives in north London, has a degree in modern history from Trinity College, Oxford, and is currently learning to play the drums.
-
Tesla and Alphabet announce results – should you invest in Big Tech?
How profitable are the world’s biggest tech companies? We share the latest so far this earnings season.
By Katie Williams Published
-
How working part-time in retirement could boost your pension by £87,000
Easing into retirement by working a few days a week could add thousands to your pension pot. We crunch the figures to see how working part-time can boost your pension po
By Ruth Emery Published
-
Revolut founder Nik Storonsky cashes in – what's next for the fintech billionaire?
Nik Storonsky has shaken up the banking industry with Revolut. He is now preparing a new project that could do the same to the venture capital sector
By Jane Lewis Published
-
Is local production making a comeback?
Companies return production closer to home and shorten their supply chains due to the pandemic and geopolitical turmoil. How should investors react?
By Dr Matthew Partridge Published
-
French election: an unexpected win for the left-wing
The snap French election delivered a stalemate. What does this mean for the country's stability?
By Dr Matthew Partridge Published
-
Rachel Reeves: Britain’s new iron chancellor
Rachel Reeves enters No. 11 Downing Street with a determination to keep a tight grip on the purse strings. She has the makings of a chancellor of consequence.
By Jane Lewis Published
-
Amazon turns 30 – what will the next decade bring?
Amazon started life as an online bookseller operating out of a garage in Seattle. What does its future hold?
By Simon Wilson Published
-
Margot Robbie launches new gin brand
Margot Robbie is an actress, producer, investor and now a liquor baron with her new gin brand
By Jane Lewis Published
-
Return of Larry Ellison: the god of Silicon Valley
Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, was a pioneer of the US tech scene in the 1970s. The AI boom has given him a new lease of life.
By Jane Lewis Published
-
Charlie Mullins: Britain’s richest plumber launches a new venture
Plumbing tycoon and businessman Charlie Mullins aims to become the "Harrods of the handyman world".
By Stuart Watkins Published