Indian, Chinese billionaires dominate Asia in wealth gain

Indian billionaires account for five spots on the list, while Chinese individuals claimed three, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Oil tycoon Mukesh Ambani has recorded the largest wealth gain with $19.4 billion accumulated in the first nine months, bringing his total net worth to $116 billion.

He is now the richest person in Asia and 12th richest globally.

The chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries has benefited from a 13% surge of his company shares.

The shares have recently climbed after the company announced it would consider issuing bonus shares for the first time in seven years.

After the family divided the Reliance Group founded by his father, Ambani assumed leadership of the core oil refining and petrochemicals business in 2005. Since then, he has expanded into consumer-focused industries and, more recently, into green energy initiatives.

Another Indian billionaire, Gautam Adani, has seen his wealth rising by $19.2 billion this year.

The founder of Adani Group, a major conglomerate with interests in port development and coal trading, is now ranked 15th globally with a net worth of $104 billion.

Adani shares have risen almost 9% this year. In the quarter ending June 30, the company saw net income shooting up 115% to INR14.5 billion (US$173 million).

China’s Ma Huateng followed suit with a wealth gain of $15.6 billion. The co-founder and CEO of tech giant Tencent Holdings, also known as Pony Ma, now has a net worth of $50.3 billion, making him the richest person in China and 26th globally.

His wealth has jumped 45% this year as Tencent gains surpassed the performance of any similar-sized rival, riding a resurgence of gaming in China, the world’s biggest mobile arena, according to Bloomberg.

Ma represents "a new generation of Chinese billionaires" whose business is aimed at satisfying customers’ "psychological" rather than physical needs, said Hao Gao, director of the Research Center for Global Family Business at Tsinghua University.

The remainder of the list include three Indian and two Chinese billionaires, each gaining between $9 billion and $11 billion in the first nine months.

Two other billionaires were from Japan and the Philippines.

Together the 10 billionaires accumulated $130 billion in net worth in the period.