India's richest five lose Rs 5 tn to bears

Mumbai: Companies run by India's five richest, including the two Ambanis, have lost a whopping Rs 5 trillion in market value in the current bear phase that began early this year.
The cumulative market value of the companies belonging to the groups led by the five wealthiest of the country, Ambani siblings Mukesh and Anil, real estate magnate Kushal Pal Singh, software czar Azim Premji and telecom tycoon Sunil Mittal, on Monday fell to about Rs 8.5 trillion.
This marks a significant fall from over Rs 13 trillion on January 10 — when market benchmark Sensex hit a life-time high of 21,206.77 points before going southward.
The Sensex has plunged close to 7,000 points from its peak and on Monday recorded its fourth consecutive day of losses to settle at 14293.32 points — marking a loss of close to 1,500 points in the past four trading sessions.
Among the five groups, the one led by Mukesh Ambani, has recorded the maximum value erosion of about Rs 1,71,000 crore (Rs 1,710 billion).
Mukesh emerged as the richest person in India in March this year with a net worth of about Rs 2 trillion. Although Forbes' magazine named steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal on the top of its 'India's Richest' list with a net worth of $51 billion, Mittal is not a resident of India.
, market capitalisation of ArcelorMittal, in which Mittal holds a 43 per cent stake, has grown by close to Rs 2 trillion (about $46 billion) during the same period and is currently valued at over 142 billion dollars.
In the Forbes India list, Lakshmi Mittal was followed by Mukesh ($49 billion), Anil Ambani ($48 billion), K P Singh ($35 billion), Azim Premji ($14.8 billion) and Sunil Mittal ($12.5 billion).
The market capitalisation of firms belonging to Mukesh Ambani group currently stands at about Rs 3.7 trillion, as against Rs 5.4 trillion on January 10.
The second biggest loss has been seen in market value of Anil Ambani group, which has fallen by about Rs 1.3 trillion to Rs 1.9 trillion dollars. This includes Reliance Power, which was not a listed company on January 10.
Total market value of five ADAG firms, excluding Reliance Power that got listed on February 11, stood at Rs 2.5 trillion on January 10 and has dropped to Rs 1.6 trillion currently.
Including Reliance Power, the group's total listed value currently stands at about Rs 1.99 trillion. Reliance Power has also seen a sharp erosion in market value by falling to about Rs 38,900 crore (Rs 389 billion) from over Rs 84,000 crore (Rs 840 billion) on listing day.
The country's biggest real estate firm, DLF, majority owned by India's third richest K P Singh, has seen an erosion of close to Rs 1.2 trillion. Its market value dropped to close to Rs 76,000 crore (Rs 760 billion) from about Rs 1.9 trillion on January 10.
Bharti Airtel, run by Sunil Mittal, has also lost about Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion) during this period. The company currently has a market value of about Rs 1.4 trillion.
The smallest loss has been seen in Wipro, run by India's fourth richest Azim Premji. The company's market value has dropped by just about Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) to about Rs 70,000 crore (Rs 700 billion).
The net worth of these people are calculated mostly on basis of their shareholding in the listed group companies.
While wealth figures for Premji, Singh and Mittal reflect holdings in only one of group firms — Wipro, DLF and Bharti Airtel, the two Ambani groups have more than one listed firms.