According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Asia's richest person - Mukesh Ambani - added another $17 billion to his fortune as of December 23, bringing his net worth to around $61 billion.
In contrast, the net worth of Jack Ma - founder of the Alibaba Group - was up by $11.3 billion, while Jeff Bezos - who owns e-commerce giant Amazon.com - lost $13.2 billion.
This year's surge in Ambani's fortune was driven by a 40 percent rise in its Reliance Industries Ltd. stock, a conglomerate that is more focused on market products than its main oil refining and petrochemical businesses.
The stock rally is more than double the returns over the duration for India's S&P BSE Sensex index benchmark.
Going Up Against the Giants
Investors pile up money on Reliance, betting on new businesses like telecommunications and retail that could unlock value shortly.
To build a local e-commerce empire to challenge Amazon.com Inc., Ambani has spent nearly $50 billion on a wireless carrier that has become India's No. 1 in three years since its launching.
Chakri Lokapriya, Chief Investment Officer at TCG Asset Management, who manages $3 billion in assets in Mumbai, said "Mukesh Ambani has changed the narrative for Reliance Industries" as a leader not only in oil and gas, but also in telecoms and retail, and possibly soon in e-commerce as well.
According to Lokapriya, everyone in the company believes this could potentially "double the shareholder value over the next four years."
The newer business ventures are likely to rake in 50 percent of Reliance's earnings in just a few years, from around 33 percent today, Ambani said.
Cutting Debt to Become Richer
The 62-year old tycoon promised to trim down the net debt of the company to zero by the start of 2021. Plans will include a stake sale to Saudi Arabian Oil Co. in Reliance's oil-to-chemicals group, telecommunications and retail unit listings within five years.
It will also include the selling of tower properties and strategic partners for a digital platform connected to Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., the company representative said.
Since the end of 2016, when Jio entered the Indian market with free calls and cheap data and forced some heavily indebted incumbents to exit or merge with rivals, the value of Reliance's stock has nearly tripled.
Unlisted Jio posted a net income of 9.96 billion rupees ($140 million) for the September quarter with more than 350 million subscribers, while the other two private sector operators incurred record losses.
