Blasé Capital Adani vs Ambani

Here is the big news. Gautam Adani, the patriarch of ports-to-power empire, went past Mukesh Ambani, the second-generation part-patriarch of gas-to-digital fiefdom, as far as the wealth circus is concerned. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the former is ranked 19, with a net worth nearer to $93 billion, and an addition of more than $8 billion this year. The latter is biting at Adani’s heels, and is ranked 20, with a personal wealth of under $91 billion, with a loss of nearly $17 billion this year. In a sense, this year, Adani made up almost $25 billion, his additions plus his rival’s subtraction. Obviously, the race has not finished, and is still on. It is not a sprint or dash. It is a marathon that may go on for years, even decades. The unexpected gains landed at Adani’s feet, as he added more than $3.5 billion in a single day (yes, a single day), even as Ambani lost some millions of dollars. If Ambani gains a billion, and Adani loses a billion even as we write this piece, the rankings will change. According to a media report, “Adani has benefitted from a recovery in group stocks, and improving investor sentiments, while Ambani’s wealth has come under pressure amid volatility in energy markets, and broader equity movements, particularly in the backdrop of the West Asia crisis.”

But here is another big news that went unreported because it did not signify a change. According to the Forbes Real-Time Billionaire List, Mukesh Ambani is way ahead of Gautam Adani in the wealth race. When we last checked, in the afternoon, just after the Indian stock markets closed, the former was ranked 20, with a wealth of $95 billion, or an addition of $1.3 billion (1.36 per cent) for the day. Forget about biting the heels, Adani was nowhere in the immediate vicinity, ranked 26, with a net worth of just under $73 billion, with a daily accretion of $3.8 billion (5.55 per cent). This is not a small difference, a billion here and there, as is the case with the Bloomberg list. As per the Forbes’ list, Ambani is ahead by more than $22 billion which, even in the cases of billionaires, apart from rare black-swan events, do not change in a day. Yes, there was a day, when Elon Musk, the richest of them, added $200 billion, according to media reports, and another one, when Oracle’s Larry Ellison added $100 billion. But as we said, they are rare.

Since, in the present context, as it is true in the present days, wealth is ephemeral, driven by paper valuations, or prices of the listed stocks that the billionaires own, one is not unduly concerned about who is richer, Adani or Ambani. Obviously, one will watch the two lists, and others, just for curiosity’s sake, as to who finally trumps the other without a debate or dispute. Now, we are more bothered about the credibility of the two lists, Forbes and Bloomberg, their methodologies, and which one to believe. For years, even decades, Forbes’ one has been the front-runner, which has the first-movers advantage. Bloomberg’s eminence came later, but it is as well respected as Forbes. Another crucial list, Fortune, has sort of vanished from media mentions. There are some new lists, which have gained prominence in the recent past. But for most of us, who have more than 2-3 decades of journalistic experience, Forbes is the billionaire bible. For the younger generation, Bloomberg is the king of the list of the wealthiest. So, it is not just a matter of lists. It is a clash between the oldies and newbies, maybe the proponents of the brick-n-mortar businesses, and builders of new-age tech empires.

Of course, everyone knows that it is not easy to prepare a list of the wealth of the richest. Despite the listed firms that they own, whose stock prices are tracked on a second-by-second basis, when the relevant markets are open, the billionaires seem to own stocks in unlisted firms, many of which may be hidden under heavy corporate veils in secretive tax havens, as well as assets that are strewn around the globe, many of which they sometimes forget that they own and control. Even the assets under the various firms are hidden, or they are locked away in undisclosed entities, like Enron did to hide its losses. The money, assets, shares, and others in the tax havens are never revealed for the obvious purposes. The prices of the assets change, and it is extremely tough, even for media empires like Forbes and Bloomberg, to track them. Thus, as is evident, the methodologies are not perfect, and they cannot ever claim to present true pictures. They are approximations, impressions of impressions, even as the estimates possibly improve over the years. Many experts and analysts consider the lists to be incomplete, and partly inaccurate, and “often miss a significant amount of wealth, leading to ‘suspect’ rankings at the lower and middle tiers.” Knowing this may not deter the egos of the billionaires, many of whom fight tooth and nail to either reach the top, or remain at the top.