Billionaires turn millionaires after market crash

MUMBAI: Who wouldn’t want to be a millionaire? Well, here’s news. A host of India’s ultra-affluent individuals may actually be losing sleep over becoming millionaires, having already enjoyed the status of billionaires when the markets had taken personal fortunes to dizzying heights.
After Friday’s Sensex fall of 619 points, which made the index close at 13,802.22, or 33.8% below its January high, there were 23 such reluctant millionaires.
That shrinks the list of India’s billionaires as on date to 39, a far stretch from the 62 who enjoyed such status on January 8, 2008, when the Sensex had peaked at 20,873 points.
So who are these billionaires-turned-millionaires?
RP Goenka & family, who run companies such as RPG Life Sciences, Ceat, KEC International and Zensar Technologies, have lost $890 million since January, with their personal net worth now coming in just shy of the billion-dollar mark at $980 million.
Others include Birla patriarchs KK Birla and BK Birla, Mukesh Ambani’s right hand man Anand Jain, commodities king Jignesh Shah, Jet Airways boss Naresh Goyal, Bombay Dyeing’s Nusli Wadia, retailer Kishore Biyani, and stock broker Nimesh Kampani.
Apart from the bear onslaught on stocks of companies they promote, these ex-billionaires have also had to contend with a weaker rupee. Since January 8, 2008, the rupee has lost 8.89%, further exacerbating wealth erosion in terms of dollars.
The relentless bear attack shows no signs of petering out, what with record-high oil prices, high inflation and a non-conducive global macroeconomic environment adding fuel to the fire. That’s only set to swell the ranks of these reluctant millionaires.
Among those who are still billionaires, Reliance ADAG’s Anil Ambani and DLF’s KP Singh were the worst-hit as far as rate of wealth erosion was concerned.
Their personal fortunes dwindled at the rate of $12,000 per trading second each since January 8, 2008. While the former’s total net worth stands at $25 billion now, the latter is worth $15 billion. Mukesh Ambani, the richest resident Indian, also lost at the rate of $8,000 per trading second, his total personal wealth as on date coming in at $38 billion.