RIL in World’s Top 3 Energy Firms, Mukesh Ambani Still the Richest Indian

By | September 26, 2017

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd. climbed up five places to rank as the third biggest company in the Platts list of top 250 energy companies. Ambani also figured on top of Hurun’s richest Indians list for the consecutive sixth year, with net assets of Rs 2,57,900 crore.

According to the Platts list, Reliance Industries Ltd. is now trailing behind Russian gas giant Gazprom and German utility E.ON. In 2016, Reliance Industries was at the seventh spot in this list.

South Korea’s Korea Electric Power is in the fourth position followed by China Petroleum and Chemical in the fifth spot.

The Losers and Gainers

Public sector firm Indian Oil Corporation climbed seven spots to reach the seventh position in the list. IOC has been climbing up in the list steadily for the past two years; it was ranked 66 in 2015.

Another Indian company, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, also got an edge this year to be placed at the 11th position, up from the 20th spot last year.

Fourteen Indian companies made their way to the list of 250 energy companies from all around the world. Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd are placed at the 39th and 48th spot, respectively.

“While 14 Indian energy companies made it to the S&P Global Platts Top 250 Global Energy Company Rankings, they were one short of the tally held last year,” Platts said in a statement.

Other Indian companies in the list are Power Grid Corp (81) and GAIL India Ltd (106). The only Indian company, which faced a slip in the ranking is Coal India Ltd, the world’s largest coal producer. The company is now at the 45th spot, while it was ranked 38 last year.

“Coal’s troubles were especially acute in Asia, with China’s production falling by 7.9% or 140 million tons of oil-equivalent (mtoe), a record decline. Those headwinds translated into swings in this year’s Platts rankings for coal interests,” Platts described as the reason behind Coal India’s slip in the list.

The top spot grabbed by Russian giant Gazprom turned out to be a big achievement, as it ended ExxonMobil’s 12-year reign at the top of the list. The biggest gainer in this year’s list is German utility company E.ON. The company, which was at the 114th spot last year, climbed 112 spots to take the second place.

Analysis of Four Key Metrics

Platt formulates the list of top energy companies after analyzing four key metrics — asset worth, revenues, profits, and return on invested capital. All the companies mentioned in the list had assets greater than $5.5 billion.

The overall profit made by the top 10 companies in the list witnessed a fall, as this year’s $63.7 billion is 14 per cent lower than the combined profit of $74.3 billion recorded in 2016.

S&P Global Platts is a leading independent provider of information and benchmark prices for commodities and energy.

Hurun India Unveils Rich List

Ambani is the richest Indian, according to the Hurun list, followed by Dilip Shanghvi and LN Mittal at the second and third spot, respectively.

The surprise inclusion in this year’s list is Acharya Balkrishna, the head of Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurveda. The 45-year-old businessman set up Patanjali 11 years back, and the company had a turnover of Rs 10,561 crore in FY2017. He is placed eighth on the list.

“Demonetisation, the implementation of the GST… have not impacted wealth creation in the organized sector. In fact, going by the trend in the list, these factors seem to have positively impacted the mega-rich and their companies. Despite the solid performance of the corporate entities, a decline in national gross domestic product growth points to the impact of such schemes on the unorganized sectors,” Anas Rahman Junaid, the managing director of Hurun India, said.

Shiv Nadar is placed at the fourth spot, while Azim Premji ranks fifth. Other names in the top 10 list are Cyrus S Poonawalla (06), Gautam Adani (07), Uday Kotak (09) and Sunil Mittal (10).