Mukesh Ambani Suffers Loss of $7 Bn as Reliance Shares Fell by 8.7 Percent

Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest businessman, lost almost $7 billion from his net worth as Reliance Industries Ltd.’s plunged to their lowest price in over seven months after disappointing quarterly earnings. Last week, Mukesh Ambani was ranked as the sixth richest billionaire in the world, with a net worth of $78.3 billion. After Reliance shares sank nearly by nine percent, he’s now the ninth richest person in the world, with his fortune falling to $71.5 billion.

The stock of India’s most-valuable company closed 8.7 percent lower in Mumbai on Monday, slipping the most since March 23. Investors sold off shares of India’s most valuable company, which has interests in petrochemicals, oil and gas, telecom and retail, following its disappointing second quarter earnings results. It was the day’s worst performer on the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex, which rose 0.4 percent. The slide also shaved down Mukesh Ambani’s wealth to about $71 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

While overall profits for the quarter through September 30 were down 21.6 percent from the prior quarter, the organization also calculated earnings after an exceptional item - profits from selling shares in one of its telecom units; taking that into account, profits for the quarter were up 28 percent. But Reliance said that the

The stock of India’s most-valuable company closed 8.7 percent lower in Mumbai on Monday, slipping the most since March 23

quarterly profits in its petrochemicals and refining unit fell sharply due to weak demand, as the coronavirus pandemic has forced people to stay at home.

The company’s profit from refining a barrel of crude oil into fuels or gross refining margin fell to $5.70 per barrel in the latest quarter, compared to $9.40 a year earlier, according to a press release. Which means the refining-to-retail conglomerate reported a 15 percent decline in quarterly profit to Rs. 9,570 crore ($1.3 billion), as the coronavirus pandemic hit fuel demand. Revenue fell 24 percent to Rs. 1.16 lakh crore.

Reliance’s oil refining unit has suffered a plunge in demand for transportation fuels, with COVID-19 forcing people to stay home. The conglomerate is in the midst of a transformation led by Mukesh Ambani, 63, as he looks to turn the oil-and-petrochemicals giant into a technology and digital services company by bolstering its telecom and e-commerce businesses. Mukesh Ambani raised more than $20 billion during the COVID-19 lockdown by selling a third of Jio to various international investors, including Facebook, Google, private equity firms KKR, Vista Equity Partners and Silver Lake as well as the venture investing arms of Intel and Qualcomm. Despite Reliance shares’ recent plunge, the stock is still up around 25 percent so far this year. That has massively boosted Mukesh Ambani’s fortune, which has nearly doubled since the Forbes Billionaires List in April, when he had a net worth of $36.8 billion.