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Top 25 in Forbes list of richest men

New York, March 06: Riding the surging price of Berkshire Hathaway Stock, Warren Buffett has seen his fortune swell to an estimated 62 billion dollars, up 10 billion dollars from a year ago.

Bill Gates is up 2 billion dollars from a year ago, but would have been as rich--or richer--than Buffett, had Microsoft not made an unsolicited bid for *****! in the beginning of February.


Warren Buffett USD 62bn


Carlos Slim Helu & Family USD 60bn


William Gates III USD 58bn


Lakshmi Mittal USD 45bn


Mukesh Ambani USD 43bn


Anil Ambani USD 42bn


Ingvar Kamprad & Family USD 31bn


K P Singh USD 30bn


Oleg Deripaska USD 28bn


Karl Albrecht USD 27bn


Li Ka-Shing USD 26.5bn


Sheldon Adelson USD 26bn


Bernard Arnault USD 25.5bn


Lawrence Ellison USD 25bn


Roman Abramovich USD 23.5bn


Theo Albrecht USD 23bn


Liliane Bettencourt USD 22.9bn


Alexei Mordashov USD 21.2bn


Prince Alwaleed bin Alsaud USD 21bn


Mikhail Fridman USD 20.8bn


Vladimir Lisin USD 20.3bn


Amancio Ortega USD 20.2bn


Raymond, Thomas & Walter Kwok USD 19.9bn


Mikhail Prokhorov USD 19.5bn


Vladimir Potanin USD 19.3bn

Among other Indians who have made it to the Forbes list are Ravi and Sashi Ruia (Vodafone) and Azim Premji (Wipro), who have occupied the 43rd and 30th spot with net worth of 15 billion dollars and 12.7 billion dollars respectively.

The Forbes list also includes Sunil Mittal and family with a net worth 11.8 billion dollars (Bharti Group), Kumar Birla and Ramesh Chandra with 9.6 billion dollars (Aditya Birla Group), Savitri Jindal and family with 8.2 billion dollars (Jindal Group), Anil Agarwal with 6 billion dollars (Vedanta Resources) and Adi Godrej and family with 5.5 billion dollars (Godrej).

Besides, the list also has Senapathy Gopalakrishnan (Infosys), Rakesh Jhunjhunwala (stock market investor) and Rahul Bajaj (Bajaj Auto), each with a worth of one billion dollars.

Among new comers are India`s youngest billionaire Sameer Gehlaut (Indiabulls) with a net worth of 1.2 billion dollars and Gautam Adani (Adani Group) with a net worth of 9.3 billion dollars.

It`s for banks, RBI to take a call on home loan rates: FM

New Delhi, March 06: Considering the public demand that interest rates on housing loans up to Rs 20 lakhs should be slashed, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday said, it is for the banks and RBI to take a call.

"I shall certainly bear in mind that there is public demand that interest rates for borrowers, who borrow (housing loans) up to Rs 20 lakh, must be lowered," Finance Minister said during his post-budget interaction with industry chamber Assocham.

The Finance Minister said he agreed that housing loan borrowers of less than Rs 20 lakh should be incentivised by lowering interest rates.

"I made a number of efforts to impress upon bankers in this regards ... it is a constant effort that I will have to make... bankers will have to take a call, RBI will have to take a call."

He said 80 percent of all housing loans fall in the category of below Rs 20 lakhs, adding that these loans have less risk weight than those above Rs 20 lakhs and, therefore, bankers have incentives to lend to these borrowers at lower interest rates.

The RBI governor`s position to strike a balance between low inflation and high growth is unenviable, he said.

"He (RBI governor) can never please everyone. It is his judgement call what should be the interest rates in order to contain inflation and promote growth, the Finance Minister said."

Sam Ghosh to be the CEO of Rel Cap

New Delhi, March 06: Anil Ambani Group`s financial services arm Reliance Capital is set for a change of guard at the top with Sam Ghosh, who has led ramping up of German insurer Allianz`s Indian insurance ventures, about to replace Amitabh Chaturvedi as the new CEO.

The appointment, to be effective from next month, would also see a significant focus of reliance capital on its insurance business as well as retail customers.

While a company spokesperson declined to comment on the development, industry sources said that Ghosh would assume the role from April 1. Ghosh would report to Reliance Capital Vice Chairman Amitabh Jhunjhunwala.

Sources said that Ghosh has already put in his papers at Allianz. Allianz has appointed Abdul Rahman Tolefat as the new CEO for Allianz Takaful Bahrain and Kamesh Goyal as the new regional CEO for the Middle East and North Africa, with effect on April 1, 2008.

Allianz said in a statement that Ghosh, the current regional CEO for Middle East and North Africa, will give up his position with effect from April 1 in order to assume an assignment outside of the Allianz Group.

At Allianz, Ghosh has been responsible for ramping up business of its joint venture in India -- Bajaj Alliance General Insurance and Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance. Both these insurance ventures are today amongst the top three businesses in the country in their respective sectors.

The Middle East regional unit of Allianz, with headquarters in Bahrain, also consists of Allianz entities in Egypt, India, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka.

Mukesh Ambani's net worth fluctuates $35 bn
6 Mar, 2008, 1714 hrs IST........
NEW YORK: Mukesh Ambani, who runs the Reliance Industries group, also saw the highest fluctuation of about $35 billion in his net worth over the past year even as he trailed his estranged brother Anil as the world's second biggest wealth creator.

Mukesh, however, managed to maintain a slender lead of $1 billion over Anil in terms of net worth, as per a Forbes billionaire list released on Thursday. The magazine has ranked Mukesh as world's fifth richest with a net worth of $43 billion, followed by Anil with $42 billion.

According to the magazine, Anil emerged as the biggest gainer in the world with his wealth soaring by $23.8 billion, followed by $22.9 billion gained by Mukesh.

In Forbes' 2007 list, Mukesh's net worth stood at $20.1 billion, as against Anil Ambani's $18.2 billion. Mukesh and Anil were ranked at 14th and 18th positions respectively on the previous year's list.

GAIL interested in 5.2% ADB stake in Petronet
6 Mar, 2008, 1651 hrs IST...........................NEW DELHI: State gas firm GAIL India Ltd has expressed interest in buying Asian Development Bank's 5.2 per cent stake in Petronet LNG Ltd.

ADB is likely to exit Petronet, the nation's biggest liquefied natural gas importer, by the year end.

In a letter to Petronet, a copy of which was also marked to Petronet Secretary M S Srinivasan, GAIL India Chairman and Managing Director U D Choubey said the four state-run promoters of Petronet should be allowed to pick up ADB shareholding.

GAIL, Oil and Natural Gas Corp, Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum, which hold 12.5 per cent stake each in Petronet, have the first right of refusal in case ADB was to offload its shareholding in the company.

"In case other promoters are not interested, GAIL would be interested to examine the option of buying the entire 5.2 per cent of equity as this will provide us (an) opportunity for enhanced value creation for all the stakeholders of GAIL," Choubey said in the February 28 dated letter.

Oil Prices Spike to Record $105.10 in Wake of Supply Report and OPEC Production Call

Oil prices hit a record $105.10 a barrel Thursday, a day after a surprise drop in U.S. crude supplies and a decision by OPEC not to boost production.
Prices gave up some ground by midday trading in Europe. Light, sweet crude for April delivery was still up 11 cents to $104.63 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Dhoni to be paid more than Mukesh Ambani
21 Feb, 2008, 1030 hrs IST....................
NEW DELHI: The chief executive officer of the Men-In-Blue Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who has been bagged for Rs 6 crore for the domestic cricket league, has overtaken Mukesh Ambani, chief of India’s largest private sector company, in terms of compensation.

The comparison is not apt but on a per hour basis Dhoni will be paid more than Mr Ambani for the duration of the tournament. Here’s how. M S Dhoni was roped in through an auction to represent the Chennai team. At Rs 6 crore for the tournament, which will be spread over 44 days of cricketing action in the 20-20 format of the game, Dhoni would be encashing roughly Rs 56,818 per hour.

This discounts actual time that Dhoni spends on the field for Chennai, which would peg the actual per hour figure much higher. As against this, Mr Ambani, who drew Rs 30.46 crore in the last financial year through salary, perquisites and commission from Reliance Industries, would have earned about Rs 34,771 per hour. That translates into a differential of 63.4% in the hourly package that M S Dhoni would draw.

Dhoni, Yuvraj set to supercede Tendulkar in brand value
21 Feb, 2008, 0259 hrs IST...................NEW DELHI: The Indian Premier League (IPL) has done what international cricket could not for brand valuation of Indian and international cricketers in all these years.

Take Indian One Day captain MS Dhoni: with an astronomical auction tag of Rs 6 crore riding on him, the swashbuckling player’s brand valuation is set to skyrocket to Rs 4-5 crore per brand annually, ahead of the country’s highest paid cricketer – Sachin Tendulkar.

Others like Yuvraj Singh, captaining the Chandigarh team, are also being pitched aggressively on the valuation circuit. Indian advertisers are also evincing interest in offering foreign players endorsement platform, almost negligible in their home countries. Said celebrity management agency Globosport’s VP Anirban Das, “If the leagues are successful and the stars succeed, the players’ valuation will go up substantially. Big players like Yuvraj are definitely slated to be the biggest stars of the Twenty:20 format of cricket.”

Jet Airways announces flights to Berlin, Lyon, Barcelona

New Delhi, March 06: Jet Airways on Thursday announced expansion of its global network by adding flights to Berlin, Lyon and Barcelona, in code-share agreement with Brussels Airlines.

The Indian premier private carrier, which has made Brussels as its international hub, would facilitate seamless travel between Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai to these three cities of Germany, France and Spain.

A Jet spokesperson said these flights would be available for sale from Monday. "The expansion of Jet Airway's code-share agreement with Brussels Airlines will further facilitate ties between India and Europe," Mr Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, CEO of the airli ne said.

The Brussels hub, along with the tie-up with the local airline, enables the Indian carrier to operate services to a large number of destinations in Europe and Africa.

No danger of economy overheating: Chidambaram

New Delhi, March 06: Allaying fears of overheating of economy, the government on Thursday exuded optimism that growth story would continue in 2008-09 too, notwithstanding the weak global trends.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram, in his post-budget interaction with industry chamber Assocham, drew parallels with neighbouring China and referred to its Prime Minister Wen Jibao`s speech to drive home the point that the growth story must be intact.

"Wen told parliament of China...Growth story must be intact but it should not lead to overheating.... In our case growth story must be intact, there is no danger of overheating in India," the Finance Minister said.

"He (Wen) said we (China) must control inflation, their inflation is 7.1 per cent and ours is 4.89 per cent and we must also control inflation," Chidambaram said.

Both the countries make similar progress and must learn from each other, Chidambaram said.

"The only difference is that while Chinese are proud of their achievements, we seem to be too modest about what we have achieved in the last 15 years. We should take pride in what we have done, but there is still a long road ahead," he said.

Investors must be encouraged to stay invested for longer term

Defending his budget proposal to increase short term capital gains tax rate, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday said it would encourage the investors to hold on to their investments for a longer period in the markets, which are currently volatile.

"The idea is because of volatility in the market, we must encourage investors to stay invested for longer term, and I am doing precisely that by raising short term capital gains tax from 10 to 15 percent," Chidambaram said during his post-Budget interaction with industry chamber Assocham.

In this context, the Finance Minister recalled legendary investor Warren Buffett`s advice to investors: Correct approach to the stock market is put your money in the stock market and then say stock market is closed for 10 years. And look for returns after ten years.

He said by raising the short term capital gains tax, he is also equating the levy to dividend distribution tax of 15 percent.

"From shareholders point of view if we hold a share and receive a dividend, that dividend is subject to 15 per cent dividend distribution tax. When he sells a share and makes profit or capital gain, why should he not be subject to the same tax as 15 per cent," he asked.

He said short term capital gains and long term capital gains are not distinguished in many jurisdictions and even capital gains and income are not differentiated in many countries.

But in India, these distinctions are there historically, Chidambaram said adding the Budget has not done away with these distinctions.