Mukesh Ambani overtakes Alibaba’s Jack Ma as Asia’s richest person

Mukesh Ambani, Reliance Industries Chairman and India’s richest person on Friday dethroned Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba’s co-founder on Jack Ma to become Asia’s richest person as RIL shares hit an all-time high.

Ambani’s net worth now stands at $44.3bn as compared to Jack Ma’s $44bn wealth, according to Bloomberg.

Ambani has added just this year $4bn to his wealth.

The chairman of India’s refining-to-telecoms conglomerate’s estimated wealth has risen by 1.6 per cent. Earlier this month, the tycoon unveiled plans to leverage his 215 million telecom subscribers to expand his e-commerce offerings taking on the likes of Amazon.com Inc and Walmart INC. Ambani spearheaded construction of the world’s largest refining complex in Jamnagar, owns the most widespread mobile data network globally and claims to have India’s biggest as well as most profitable retail firm. Reliance saw its “biggest growth opportunity in creating a hybrid online-to-offline new commerce platform, involving the group’s Reliance Retail Ltd and Reliance Jio businesses and according to Ambani the size of Reliance will more than double by 2025.