Forbes real-time billionaire list: Mukesh Ambani becomes richest Asian, pips Chinese businessmen

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani became the richest individual in Asia, surpassing Chinese businessman Hui Ka Yan and Ma Huateng. Ambani has been the richest Indian on the Forbes list for over a decade.

The oil and gas baron climbed to 14^th position (now 16^th) on Wednesday in the real-time Billionaire list by Forbes. The real-time list is based on the value of stocks holdings and assets of individuals across the world.

According to the list, his wealth has reached USD 41.9 billion. Whereas, the wealth of Ma Huateng and Hai Ka Yun stands at USD 41.3 billion and USD 40.7 billion, respectively.

The list is topped by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos whose net worth is USD 92.6 billion. Bezos is followed by Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway’s Chairman Warren Buffett. Spanish businessman Amancio Ortega and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg complete the top five.

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In the September quarter, Reliance Industries posted 12.5 percent increase in the consolidated net profit to Rs 8,109 crore against Rs 7,209 crore in the same quarter last year.

“In 2016, Reliance sparked a price war in India's hyper-competitive telecom market with the launch of 4G phone service Jio. Jio has notched up 130 million customers by offering free domestic voice calls, dirt-cheap data services and virtually free smartphones,” said Forbes.

Reliance Jio also beat the estimates this quarter posting a net loss of Rs 270 crore.

Disclosure: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.