With an estimated combined wealth of Rs 70,000 crore, Acharya Balkrishna, head of Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayruveda, has marked an impressive entry into the elite list of richest Indians, climbing up from number 25 last year to the 8th rank in terms of biggest gainers.
The rise of Balkrishna can be attributed to the success of Patanjali that he set up with Swami Ramdev, which registered a turnover of Rs 10,561 crore in FY17. The firm is giving tough competition to international brands, a Hurun statement read.
While Balkrishna making it to the list of top 10 with a 173 per cent increase in wealth is among the high points, the biggest gainer has been Damani, the founder of D-Mart stores, registering an increase of 320 per cent in his wealth. Damani’s Avenue Supermarts was listed at a premium of 102 per cent and rallied a further 43 per cent as of July 31.
Following 62-year-old Damani, the biggest gainer was Anurang Jain, 55, the managing director of Endurance Technology. His and his family’s wealth increased by 286 per cent.
The top three in the biggest gainers list were backed by the initial public offerings (IPO) performance of their companies.
“Demonetisation, the implementation of the GST… have not impacted wealth creation in the organised sector. In fact, going by the trend in the list, these factors seem to have positively impacted the mega rich and their companies. Despite the solid performance of the corporate entities, a decline in national gross domestic product growth points to the impact of such schemes on the unorganised sectors,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, managing director and chief researcher, Hurun Report India.
Among other surprises, 42-year-old Bengaluru-based Ambiga Subramanian emerged as the youngest self-made woman in the list, as she sold her shares in Mu Sigma, the data analytics unicorn that she co-founded. The pharmaceuticals and consumer products companies were biggest gainer this year, with the two sectors doubling the number of entrants to 79 and 63, respectively.
Chairman of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani, 60, with net worth of Rs 2.57 lakh crore is ranked first in the list for the sixth consecutive year. Share price of Reliance Industries hit a nine-year high in July this year. Over the past year, Reliance Industries’ shares have gained over 1 per cent every seven days, rising by 56 per cent in 52 weeks.
Another notable performer was Kishore Biyani of Future Retail, registering a 259 per cent increase in wealth. The merger of Future Retail and Bharti Retail created the biggest supermarket chain with a turnover of Rs 15,000 crore and its subsequent relisting resulted in significant wealth creation for Biyani.
All the under-40 entrepreneurs in the Hurun India Rich List 2017 derive their wealth from innovative technological ventures.
Divyank Turakhia, 34, of Media.net is the youngest self-made billionaire in the list. Divyank Turakhia bootstrapped his company Media.net without external funding. Rest of the entrepreneurs raised money from some of the top international funds.
The Hurun India Rich List is based on a comparison with their listed equivalents using prevailing industry multiples such as price to earnings, price to sales, EV to sales, EV to Ebitda, and also other methodologies. In certain cases of early-stage companies, the First Chicago Method for valuation has been used.
