Mukesh Ambani: Asia’s Wealthiest Man

Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, has spent the last two decades transforming the petrochemicals giant he inherited into a global empire, venturing into telecoms, retail, cricket, and luxury fashion.

His youngest son, Anant, is set to marry his childhood sweetheart, Radhika Merchant, in a lavish three-day wedding in Mumbai beginning Friday. The event is slated to be an embodiment of the tycoon’s high stature in India’s corporate hierarchy.

The festivities have been marked by several extravagant parties, featuring a guest list populated by global political, financial, and cultural elites.

Notable guests have included Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and Ivanka Trump, the daughter of former US President Donald Trump. Musical performances by global pop stars like Rihanna, Katy Perry, and Justin Bieber have added to the grandeur.

With an estimated net worth of $123 billion according to Forbes, Mukesh Ambani has long personified India’s burgeoning economic influence.

Born in 1957, Ambani was raised in Mumbai, where his father Dhirubhai established a lucrative yarn trading business, earning him the nickname “polyester prince.”

By 1981, after dropping out of an MBA program at Stanford University, he joined the family business, then known as Reliance, which was expanding rapidly. Dhirubhai trusted the 24-year-old Mukesh to build the company’s first mega petrochemical plant in India, supposedly telling him, “I am not going to hold your hand… or mollycoddle you through this project. If you can make it, very good, if you cannot, we will find somebody else.”

“My father really took a chance on me,” Ambani recalled in a 2002 interview with talk show host Simi Garewal.

When Dhirubhai suddenly passed away in 2002 without a will, it sparked a bitter feud between Mukesh and his younger brother, Anil. Their mother Kokilaben had to mediate a deal that split the multibillion-dollar conglomerate.

Mukesh took over the traditional businesses of oil, gas, and petrochemicals, while Anil secured control of power utilities, telecom, and finance. By 2006, some analysts thought Anil, tech-savvy and married to a former Bollywood star, had won the better end of the deal. Mukesh, conversely, was considered a media-shy traditionalist who consulted astrologers before launching new ventures.

Fast forward to 2019, Mukesh’s empire was thriving while Anil’s businesses were struggling. Mukesh’s success was epitomized by the launch of Reliance Jio in 2016, which sparked a brutal price war in the telecom sector. Jio became the country’s largest mobile operator within four years, offering aggressive discounts, including free voice calls for life and extremely cheap data.

Anil’s Reliance Communications faced severe losses, forcing him to declare insolvency in 2019. Mukesh had to bail him out to settle debts and avoid jail.

Mukesh Ambani’s ambitions didn’t stop at telecommunications. He leveraged Jio’s extensive subscriber base to launch e-commerce services in 2020, taking on global giants like Amazon and Walmart. His myriad retail partnerships include prestigious fashion brands such as Burberry, Armani, and Jimmy Choo.

In February, Reliance and Walt Disney announced the merger of their Indian media businesses, forming an $8.5 billion power conglomerate with 750 million viewers nationwide. His ventures have also reached the sports world, with Reliance owning the Mumbai Indians cricket team, which has won the Indian Premier League five times.

As Ambani’s fortune increased, so did his public profile. His new 27-story luxury Mumbai residence, reportedly costing over $1 billion to construct, has earned him the nickname “a modern-day maharajah.”

His daughter Isha’s extravagant wedding at a lakeside palace featured performances by Beyonce and a roster of Bollywood stars, with reports estimating a bill of up to $100 million.

Ambani has been critical of Western-style philanthropy, which he believes tends to disempower by increasing dependency and reducing initiative and enterprise. “I fundamentally believe that that kind of charity is by and large a disempowering tool,” he stated in 2011.

Source: AFP