9 Indians among world's 300 richest people

Shiv Nadar added most to his wealth in 2013, Savitri Jindal the top loser.

In general, India’s billionaires would like to forget 2013 in a hurry.

But there are a few exceptions.

At least four of the nine Indian billionaires in Bloomberg’s list of the world’s 300 richest individuals made more money and added a combined $10.7 billion to their wealth during the year.

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Not surprisingly, three of them belong to the information technology and healthcare sectors, while the fourth -- Pallonji Mistry, a major stakeholder in Tata Sons -- has benefited largely from a robust 68 per cent rise in Tata Consultancy Services’ stock price.

Mistry, father of Tata group chairman Cyrus Mistry, added $2.6 billion to his wealth this year.

The Mistry family owns an 18.5 per cent stake in Tata Sons, the Tata group’s holding company that owns 74 per cent stake in TCS.

A sharp fluctuation in the value of the rupee also contributed to the swinging fortunes of India’s billionaires during the year.

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Shiv Nadar, founder-chairman of India’s third-largest software exporter, HCL Technologies, topped among the Indian billionaires going to end 2013 richer.

His wealth has gone up by as much as $3.9 billion since January, with HCL’s share price doubling during the period to close at Rs 1,246 apiece on Thursday.

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Close second was Sun Pharmaceutical Founder & Managing Director Dilip Shanghvi, who had started his company with just two employees.

The share price of the drug company, which today has operations in 40 countries and employs 13,000, rose 54 per cent this year to close at Rs 570 on Thursday.

Shanghvi, now among the world’s 100 richest individuals, added $3.2 billion to his wealth in 2013, with his company now focusing on spreading its wings abroad -- especially the US, the world’s biggest pharmaceutical market.

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Wipro Chairman Azim Premji was the fourth-biggest gainer, adding $941 million to his fortune.     

But things have not been that rosy for the other five billionaires in the list -- they have lost a combined $6.2 billion.

Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, dropped from his global ranking of 18th-richest in 2012 to 35th in 2013, with his wealth eroding by $1 billion during the year. 

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The biggest loser was OP Jindal group promoter Savitri Jindal, whose wealth shrank by $2.8 billion, as shares of group companies fell after the names of some of those came up in the mining scam controversy.

The New Delhi-based holding company has stakes in India’s biggest steel producer and stainless steel maker.

Her four sons -- Prithvi, Sajjan, Ratan and Navin -- run the businesses.

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Anil Ambani lost $813 million of his wealth, despite a spectacular 78 per cent surge in Reliance Communications’ share price.

Globally, the world’s biggest wealth creator in 2013 was Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, who added $14.8 billion during the year to take his wealth to $77.5 billion.

Microsoft’s shares rose 39 per cent during the period.