Mukesh Ambani has crossed Li Ka-shing to become Asia’s second-richest man as investors rallied behind his efforts to arm India’s poor with cheap data-loaded phones. Some analysts are beginning to focus on the costs of his ambition.
The chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd. has added $12.1 billion (around Rs. 77,000 crore) to his wealth this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as shares of his refining-to-telecom company surged to a record.
Spurring the rally on is optimism that a new $23 phone (Rs. 1,500) launched last month will expand the market for Ambani’s fourth-generation mobile network into India’s hinterland. The whistles and applause that greeted the JioPhone obscured the fact that by one measure the company’s debt has climbed to at least a 15-year high.
