India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, known for his overly-opulent tastes in homes, has reportedly lost one quarter of his overall net worth due to the decline of the rupee.
He has lost a total of $5.6 billion since the beginning of May 2013 according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.
Prior to the weakening of the rupee, the 56 year old tycoon had a net worth of $17.5 billion.
Ambani is currently the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd. which deals in a number of different industries such as telecommunications, retail, petrochemicals and, the largest segment, oil refining.
Reliance Industries Ltd. has been described as the 107th largest global conglomerate, according to the Fortune Global 500 list and its exports contribute to 14% of the nation’s total per annum.
He is also famous in India for his 27 story home which valued at $1 billion. This is thought to be the world’s most expensive residence.
He currently employees over 600 people in his home alone. In addition, he has dedicated the entire first floor to be a temple.
With the rupee steadily declining all year, he is not the only billionaire to lose a large sum of their fortunes. His younger brother, Anil Ambani, has also reportedly lost 17% of his overall wealth equivalent to $1.3 billion.
In addition, Dillip Sanghvi who is the founder of pharmaceutical company Sun Pharmaceutical, has lost a total of $2 billion since May 2013 making his losses the second greatest on the list.
Due to the potential US intervention in Syria, many foreign investors have been withdrawing their money from India’s economy.
Fears have stirred that the United States will pull out from their monthly loans and this will cause the nation’s currency to slide even further.
Shares in Reliance Industries Ltd. has dropped around 15% percent since July this year. In addition the telecom company, Reliance Communications, had taken out a foreign loan from the United States and due to the drop in exchange rate, have now accumulated even more debt.
Regardless, Mukesh Ambani is planning to make an investment worth $4 billion into US shale assets. In addition to his previous investment, the total he has put into this market is a whopping $6 billion.
Although things do not look very promising for India’s rupee, with analysts even suspecting it will reach the rate of 70 rupees to the US dollar, the nation’s finance minister believes that there is no reason to fear and that the rupee is being “undervalued”.
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