The Russian economy is controlled by the seven oligarchs, the South Korean economy is controlled by the 10 chaebols, and the same is true of the Indian economy, which is controlled by the big four.
No one in India can bypass the Tata Group, the Eddie Birla Group, the Adani Group and Reliance Industries. The most powerful of these is Ambani's Reliance Industries, which is now worth more than $200 billion and is the most valuable company on the Indian stock market.
The latest news is that the total market capitalization of the Indian stock market has surpassed Hong Kong to become the fourth largest stock exchange market in the world. Over the past 30 years, the Indian stock market has shown a magical side, that is, it has risen all the way, and now it has skyrocketed 100 times. It can be said that this is also the envy of my big A shareholders.
Of course, the biggest winner of this round of the Indian stock market surge must be Ambani, India's richest man. His Reliance Industries has become a company with a market value of more than $200 billion, and his personal net worth is also around $100 billion.
Since 2012, Reliance Industries' market value has almost tripled. Ambani is now the richest man in Asia. So how did Ambani rise to the throne of India's richest man step by step?
The founder of Reliance Industries was Ambani's father. The elder Ambani was born from scratch in India. Ambani's grandfather was just an ordinary village teacher. At the age of 17, the elder Ambani began working as an employee in a trading house. After a few years of saving, at the age of 24, he invested $500 to set up a small trading company, initially trading in nylon and other products.
After the business slowly gained a foothold, he became involved in oil and other trades. His father was very strict with Ambani's education, and in order to cultivate his son's business ability, Ambani became the general manager of Reliance at the age of 18. Ambani is indeed quite talented in business, and he has led the company to carry out diversified development reforms, developing oil, electricity, telecommunications and other businesses.
Ambani's rise is actually closely related to India's economic development. India has a large population, but an economically backward economy. India already had a population of 900 million in the 90s.
However, they did not take advantage of the demographic advantage in the 90s, like China, to develop into an industrial power. In fact, India has been learning from China over the years, for example, externally, they are also reforming and opening up. Internally, however, India is somewhat similar to Russia and South Korea. They don't rely on large state-owned enterprises, but they rely heavily on giants.
Most of India's infrastructure business was later taken over by Ambani. Ambani established power plants, telecommunications companies, and financial companies in India, and gradually monopolized most of the infrastructure business. In 1992, Reliance Group was successfully listed in the United States.
Subsequently, Ambani took advantage of his capital advantage to further expand his investment in India. In 2002, his father died unexpectedly, and Ambani began to take over the Reliance Group.
At this time, the total assets of Reliance Group had reached 16.8 billion US dollars, equivalent to about 3.5% of India's GDP. It is not an exaggeration to say that Ambani is a rival country.
His father died unexpectedly, and Ambani began to fight with his younger brother over the family property. Because of the sudden death of his father, all did not leave a will. So the two brothers began to fight over the family property. Ambani's younger brother has also been working in the company before and served as deputy general manager, and his ability is also very outstanding.
Ambani began to empty his brother, spin off the business, and increase his controlling stake. The infighting between the two brothers has also become the most enthusiastic lace news reported by the Indian media. This matter later caused trouble and was personally mediated by the then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But the two brothers still didn't give face, and continued to fight openly and secretly.
Later, they now come forward and demand that Ambani must reach a settlement with his brother. Later, Ambani also listened to his mother's words and gave his younger brother three companies: Xinshi Energy, Reliance Communications, and Reliance Assets.
It is worth mentioning that Ambani's younger brother also came to China many years ago to invest, but he owed a lot of debt, and then he hid back in India. Chinese companies went to India to sue him, but there was no way to take him, he had already transferred his assets. He obviously enjoys yachts, luxury cars, and luxury houses, but Chinese companies have nothing to do with him.
However, now the younger brother's business is far less than that of the elder brother Ambani. After taking sole control of Reliance Industries, Ambani continued to expand his investments, especially in oil. India is a country that lacks oil, but because of its large population, it consumes nearly 10 million barrels of oil every year. That's why Ambani attaches great importance to this business.
Ambani not only has a large number of oil fields in India, but also has bought a large number of oil fields internationally. In 2007, with the market value of Reliance Industries soaring, Ambani briefly became the richest man in the world.
Ambani is also a very wealthy man who knows how to enjoy, he spent $1 billion in Mumbai to build India's first mansion, this building alone has 600 servants, all kinds of facilities are very complete, and there is even a helipad on the building.
Ambani has a wife and two children. His wife is also a great beauty in India, and more importantly, his wife is a high-caste Brahmin born in India. In India, the caste system is a chasm that even Ambani cannot escape. Ambani himself was born at the bottom, so after making a fortune, his first wish was to marry a woman of a high caste.
Ambani's daughter got married a few years ago, and the wedding was a sensation around the world, with hundreds of private jets transporting VIPs from all over the world. After Mumbai, a big carnival parade was held throughout the city. Ambani has the best private estate in the world and has her daughter throw a pre-wedding party. The party also specially invited Beyoncé to hold a private concert, which alone cost tens of millions of dollars.
In the end, the entire wedding cost hundreds of millions of dollars. However, these riches are actually just the tip of the iceberg for Ambani. As the Indian stock market continues to soar, his personal wealth continues to grow.