Mukesh Ambani is no longer Asia’s richest person

Indian business tycoon Mukesh Ambani is no longer Asia’s richest person, the latest collapse across overall markets has wiped almost $6 billion off his fortune, Bloomberg Billionaires Index reported.

According to Bloomberg, the world’s 500 richest people lost collectively $238.5bn on Monday, the biggest fall since they were tracked in October 2016.

Equity and oil markets suffered a major blow that has been dubbed Black Monday as growing doubts about the economic impact of coronavirus were compounded by Saudi Arabia’s decision to cut crude prices resulting in a row with Russia over production cuts.

Since the 1991 Gulf War, crude prices have fallen in their worst drop.

The sale of shares erased $5.8bn from 62-year-old Ambani’s net worth to leave him with a net worth of about $41.8bn.

Ambani was overtaken by the founder of Alibaba, Chinese tycoon Jack Ma, whose fortune had fallen about $1.1bn to $44.5bn. he had ceded the number-one ranking in mid-2018.

The crash in oil prices raises questions about plans by Ambani’s Reliance conglomerate to cut debt as they join on selling a stake in its oil and petrochemicals unit to Saudi Aramco, Bloomberg reported.

Ambani’s fortune expanded after India’s telecoms boom. He lived with his family in a 27-story luxury Mumbai skyscraper that cost more than $1bn to build.

According to Bloomberg, Amazon founder and world’s richest man Jeff Bezos $5.6bn and Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett $5.3bn have also lost their fortunes on global markets on Monday.

However, they still have fortunes of $111.8bn and $76.4bn respectively.

Chairman of luxury-goods giant LVMH, Bernard Arnault has become Europe’s biggest decliner with a $4.4bn drop in his net worth to $81.4bn, Bloomberg reported.