Anil Agarwal, Rahul Bajaj make it to top 10 billionaires list

Soaring stock prices have pushed up the market capitalisation of several companies""and the riches of India's top businessmen. So Sterlite Industries' Anil Agarwal and Bajaj Auto's Rahul Bajaj have made it to the list of India's top 10 billionaires now.

Agarwal climbed to the 8th position in the BS Billionaire rankings from 17th in August 2003, when the list was last compiled. Bajaj moves up a notch, from number 11 to number 10.

As a result of the resurgent stock prices of the Sterlite group and Bajaj Auto, respectively, Agarwal and Bajaj have edged out K Anji Reddy and Karsanbhai Patel from the top 10 positions.

Agarwal's net worth has increased Rs 2,166 crore to Rs 3,568 crore now. Bajaj's net worth leaped Rs 758 crore to Rs 2,859 crore between August and November 2003.

This compilation of net worth was made on the basis of the average prices of the holdings of these businessmen in listed companies in November 2003. Business Standard published the fifth annual rankings of BS Billionaires in August 2003.

Apart from these two changes, the other names in the top 10 list remain unchanged, though the rankings have changed. Mukesh and Anil Ambani remain at the top with a combined net worth of Rs 30,322 crore.

Wipro's Azim Premji remains at second place, with a net worth of Rs 28,352 crore.

Strikingly, Premji is closing in on the Ambanis. His net worth increased by Rs 9,389 crore between August and November. In contrast, the Ambanis' net worth increased by Rs 6,735 crore. As a consequence, the gap between the Ambanis and Premji narrowed to Rs 1,970 crore at the end of November, from Rs 4,624 crore at the end of August.

Ranbaxy Laboratories' Malvinder and Shivender Singh, Sun Pharmaceutical's Dilip Shanghvi and Zee Telefilms' Subhash Chandra moved down the totem pole while the Bharti group's Sunil Mittal and A V Birla group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla moved up.

Mittal of Bharti Tele-Ventures is now in the third slot, up from the fourth position earlier, with a net worth of Rs 7,260 crore. Mittal's wealth increased by Rs 2,261 crore on the back of a 45 per cent rise in the market price of his flagship telecom company Bharti Tele-Ventures. Malvinder and Shivender Singh slipped from the third position in August to the fifth now.

Shiv Nadar gained Rs 2,174 crore in wealth and moved up a notch, from the fifth to fourth position, with an individual net worth of Rs 6,473 crore. Kumar Mangalam Birla is now ranked 6th (7th earlier), with a net worth of Rs 4,033 crore.

Zee Telefilms promoter Subhash Chandra has slipped from the eighth position in August to the ninth. Sun Pharma promoter Dilip Shanghvi has slipped from the sixth position to the seventh position.