Mukesh Ambani Becomes Asia’s Richest Man

Mukesh Ambani has once again become Asia's wealthiest person after Zhong Shanshan's bottled water company tanked a record 20% this week. While Ambani's net worth is about $80 billion, China's Zhong Shanshan is currently worth $76.6 billion.

In September last year, Shanshan became Asia's richest person after surpassing Chinese tech titan Jack Ma. Meanwhile Ambani spent most of the past two years leading the ranking of Asia's richest people, taking over Jack Ma in due course. Then the listing of two companies put Shanshan on the map.

Shanshan went on to grab the title from Ambani at the end of December and by early 2021 was the sixth-wealthiest person on Earth, surpassing Warren Buffett. His net worth tripled from its initial public offering to a peak in January as investors flocked to consumer shares, while his vaccine maker, Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise Co., surged as much as 3,757%.

That did not go far as the Hong Kong and Chinese stock markets were among the world's biggest decliners during that time.

Ambani on the other hand has turned his empire and lifted his fortune by selling stakes in Reliance's digital and retail units to investors including Google and Facebook Inc.

In November 2020, Ambani had slipped three positions in the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list after Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) suffered heavy losses in the stock market.