A sharp erosion in his wealth and a long-running sibling rivalry notwithstanding, Indian billionaire Anil Ambani has retained his position in the list of the world’s 100 most powerful people, but is down 30 places since last year, while his brother Mukesh has made a total exit. Ranked 97th in the latest edition of the annual ranking compiled by British fashion magazine Vanity Fair, Anil is the only Indian in the list, which is topped by financial services behemoth Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein.
Anil was ranked at 67th position jointly with Mukesh in the previous year’s list.
The current list, described as “The New Establishment 2009” by the magazine, also figures names like Apple’s iconic chief Steve Jobs and legendary investor Warren Buffett and these 100 people have been described as the world’s most powerful in today’s information age.
“Ambani was the biggest loser when Forbes published its annual wealth ranking in March: his fortune fell by $32 billion, to $10 billion. But that still left him with plenty of cash to close a Bollywood-meets-Hollywood deal with Steven Spielberg to make a $500 million investment in DreamWorks (along with the rights to distribute its films in India),” Vanity Fair said about Anil.
The magazine further noted that “Anil, 50, and his billionaire brother, Mukesh, (they grew up in a communal building in a distressed neighbourhood) foolishly hurt their image by perpetuating a long public feud: they frequently sued each other but rarely talked.”
“In one of their biggest battles, Mumbai’s high court ordered Mukesh’s company to make good on a deal from 2005 (when the two brothers split their late father’s empire) to sell natural gas to Anil’s company for 17 years at a price 44 per cent lower than that set by the government. That could mean billions of dollars worth of savings for Anil and losses for Mukesh, who appealed to India’s Supreme Court.”
In his “latest act of do-goodery,” the magazine said, Anil opened a 730-bed hospital in Mumbai.
The magazine, in its last year rankings, had said both Mukesh and Anil together held a large combined net worth and they inherited their father’s sprawling industrial conglomerate in 2002, “but never figured how to play together nicely”.
