Mumbai: Mukesh Ambani has faced a loss of $5 billion from his net worth as Reliance Industries Ltd.’s shares tumbled to the lowest price in more than three months following a drop in quarterly profit. The stock of India’s most-valuable company fell as much as 6.8% in Mumbai on Monday as of 12:21 p.m., slipping the most since May 12 and touching the lowest since July 20. The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex only declined as much as 0.7%. The slide also shaved down Ambani’s wealth to about $73 billion to mark his worst day since March, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The refining-to-retail conglomerate reported a 15% decline in quarterly profit to 95.7 billion rupees ($1.3 billion) late on Friday, as the coronavirus pandemic hit fuel demand. Revenue fell 24% to 1.16 trillion rupees. Reliance’s oil refining unit has suffered a plunge in demand for transportation fuels, with Covid-19 forcing people to stay home. The conglomerate is in the midst of a transformation led by Ambani, 63, as he looks to turn the oil-and-petrochemicals giant into a technology and digital services company by bolstering its telecom and e-commerce businesses. The slip in earnings backs Ambani’s strategy and highlights the increasing need for Reliance to reduce its dependence on the energy sector and boost businesses that seek to leverage India’s billion-plus consumers.
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