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Three UAE expats feature in the top 100 richest Indian list

MA Yusuffali, Joy Alukkas and Micky Jagtiani retain their place in the prestigious Forbes list of 100 richest that was topped by Gautam Adani

Published: Mon 17 Oct 2022, 6:50 PM

Updated: Mon 17 Oct 2022, 6:57 PM

By
Issac John

Yusuf Ali MA Yusuffali, whose Lulu Group runs one of the fastest-growing hypermarket-supermarket networks in the world, was ranked 35th with a wealth of $5.4 billion. — File photos

The combined wealth of India’s 100 richest grew $25 billion to touch $800 billion as post-pandemic demand revival powered its economy to become the fifth-largest in the world, surpassing the UK.

Three non-resident Indians living in the UAE — MA Yusuffali, chairman of Lulu Group, Joy Alukkas, chairman of Joyalukkas Group, and Micky Jagtiani, chairman of Landmark Group --- retained their place in the prestigious Forbes list of 100 richest that was topped by Gautam Adani, India’sinfrastructure tycoon with a wealth of $150 billion.

Yusuffali, whose Lulu Group runs one of the fastest-growing hypermarket-supermarket networks in the world, was ranked 35th with a wealth of $5.4 billion.

Joy Alukkas, chairman and managing director, Joyalukkas Group.

Alukkas, who owns one the largest jewellery networks in the Middle East, was positioned 69th with a fortune of $3.1 billion. He is the only Indian jeweller who could find a spot among the top 100. The 73rd ranked Jagtiani’s wealth has been estimated at $2.9 billion.

After nearly tripling his wealth in 2021, Adani doubled his fortune this year to $150 billion to become the new No. 1— and also, for a while in September this year, the second richest person on the planet when his fortune stood at $155.7 billion. The biggest gainer this year in both percentage and dollar terms, Adani announced he would be investing $100 billion over the next decade, 70 per cent of it in green energy, a Forbes statement said.

The second richest Indian, according to Forbes, is Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, the oil and gas to telecom giant, with $88 billion, down 5.0 per cent from last year’s $92.7 billion. Between them, Adani and Ambani now account for 30 per cent of the total wealth of India’s 100 richest.

Radhakishan Damani, who owns the DMart chain of supermarkets, broke into the top three for the first time though his net worth declined 6.0 per cent to $27.6 billion. Another year of bumper profits from Covid-19 vaccines pushed up India’s vaccine baron Cyrus Poonawalla to fourth place with a fortune of $21.5 billion, Forbes said in a statement.

Gautam Adani doubled his fortune this year to $150 billion to become the new No. 1.

Others among the top 10 include Shiv Nadar-$21.4 billion, Savitri Jindal & family-$16.4 billion; Dilip Shanghvi & family-$15.5 billion; Hinduja brothers-$15.2 billion; Kumar Birla-$15 billion; and Bajaj Family-$14.6 billion.

Three prominent members belonging to the top richest passed away this year: Rahul Bajaj, the patriarch of the Bajaj family; Rakesh Jhunjhunwala often referred to as India’s Warren Buffet, who died shortly after launching his new airline Akasa Air in August and whose wife, Rekha Jhunjhunwala takes his place; and construction magnate Pallonji Mistry, whose 54-year-old son Cyrus Mistry died three months later in a car crash in September leaving the patriarch’s older son Shapoor Mistry at the helm of the family’s $14.2 billion fortune.

Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, is the second richest Indian with $88 billion, down five per cent from last year’s $92.7 billion.

Nykaa’s CEO Falguni Nayar is amongst the three new faces this year in the list which entered thanks to their companies’ IPOs. Falguni Nayar (ranked 44 with a net worth of $4.08 billion) is a former banker who became India’s richest self-made woman after listing her beauty and fashion retailer Nykaa last year. Other two new entrants in the list after their IPO rollouts are ethnic garments retailer Ravi Modi (ranked 50 with a net worth of $3.75 billion), and shoemaker Rafique Malik (ranked 89 with a net worth $2.22 billion) who listed Metro Brands in December 2021.

Among the four returnees to the ranks is Anand Mahindra, whose company created a buzz by launching an electric SUV. The gainers on the list were outnumbered by the majority—60 in all—who saw their wealth decline from a year ago. Notable among the drop-offs was Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who saw shares of his One97 Communications, the parent company of fintech Paytm, fall amid the global tech rout. The cutoff for the top 100 was $1.9 billion, almost the same as last year’s $1.94 billion.

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