Forbes real-time billionaire's list: Mukesh Ambani overtakes China's Hui Ka Yan to become Asia's richest man

After maintaining his Numero Position as the richest Indian for over a decade, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani on Friday overtook Chinese businessman Hui Ka Yan to become the richest man in Asia.

Ambani rose to 14th rank on Forbes' Real Time list of billionaires across the globe. Forbes' Real Time list is based on the value of person's stock holding and assets on a real time basis.

According to Forbes Real Time billionaires' list, Mukesh Ambani's wealth rose by $223 million to $41.8 billion on the back of rise in Reliance Industries Ltd stock price, whereas the wealth of Hui Ka Yan, the Chairman of China Evergrande Group slumped by $586 million to $41.2 billion on November 2.  

With a net worth of $93.3 billion, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos raced past Bill Gates to become world's richest man. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates ranked with his $89.5 billion fortune. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerbeg stood at 5th spot with a $75.8 billion fortune. 

Mukesh Ambani-led oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) had earlier posted a 12.5 per cent increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 8,109 crore in the September quarter of FY18, as against Rs 7,209 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. RIL's telecom arm Reliance Jio logged a net loss of Rs 270.6 crore, beating street estimates.

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, Forbes said.

Last month, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani emerged as the richest Indian for the 10th year in a row on Forbes list as his net worth shot up to a staggering $38 billion (nearly Rs 2.5 lakh crore). Despite India's economic hiccups, tycoons on the 2017 Forbes India rich list saw their wealth soar with their combined fortunes rising 26 per cent to $479 billion (over Rs 31 lakh crore).

"The results also reflect strong underlying fundamentals of our refining and petrochemicals businesses," Ambani had said.