Mukesh Ambani moved past Li Ka-Shing to reach the position of the second richest man in Asia. Reliance Industries Chairman added approximately Rs. 77,000 crore or $12.1 billion to his wealth in the year on the back of surge in share price of all of its companies as per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The net worth of Mukesh Ambani increased to a whopping $34.8 billion which is around Rs. 2.2 lakh crore.

The rally is further enthused by the recently launched Jio Phone priced at Rs. 1500 that shall increase the market for fourth generation network of Ambani. Despite all the euphoria surrounding Mukesh Ambani and his group companies, Reliance Industries is trapped in the highest debt figure in 15 years time. Alone, the telecom arm of Ambani has sucked in a total of over $31 billion or Rs. 2 lakh crore in as investments and is yet to result in any breakeven situation and earn profit for the group chairperson and shareholders.

Approximately 90% of the total revenues continue to be earned from the petrochemical and refining arm and the other proportion is contributed by energy exploration, media and retail.

Reliance's reported debt numbers may actually increase over the next two to three years due to planned investments of about Rs. 55,000 crore in the current fiscal and a "significant payment" due for capital spending and deferred liabilities, according to Kotak Securities.

"We rule out a substantial reduction in effective net debt over next 2-3 years," the analysts wrote, noting the "continued cash burn in Jio."

Kotak Securities downgraded the Reliance Industries stock to reduce in price. Another analysts from Mumbai noted
"We remain wary of high capex run-rate and rising net debt levels".

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