Mar 22, 2023
By: BI India BureauWhile nine of India’s top 10 billionaires lost their wealth in the last one year, the third richest Indian and Vaccine King Cyrus Poonawalla was the only exception, as per 2023 M3M Hurun Global Rich List.
Credit: Cyrus-Poonawalla-Group
Cyrus Poonawalla derives most of his wealth to the tune of $27 billion from his unlisted vaccine company – Serum Institute of India. His wealth grew by 4 percent in the last one year.
Credit: Canva
The healthcare sector minted the most number of Indian dollar billionaires in the last one year and as much as 12.5 percent of healthcare wealth globally comes from India. Cyrus Poonawalla is the richest healthcare billionaire in the world.
Credit: Cyrus-Poonawalla-Group
Unlike all his peers in the top 10 list, Serum Institute was not harmed by market volatility. Most of his peers in the energy, tech and other sectors lost over 10 percent of their wealth.
Credit: Canva
Serum Institute of India is the most valuable unlisted company at ₹2.19 lakh crore, according to the 2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500.
Credit: Serum-Institute-of-India
Adar Poonawala, son of Cyrus Poonawalla and CEO of Serum Institute, in an interview with Forbes on March 1 said that while it may move ahead on plans to list other companies where Poonawalla Group has invested, Serum Institute of India comes last in the list.
Credit: Serum-Institute-of-India
“We have got the financial services and may the general insurance company later on in a couple of years and some of these other investments where we wanna go for an IPO. But not for Serum because Serum now doesn’t need capital,” said Poonawalla.
Credit: BCCL
“The only time we could have taken on an investor was during the Covid crisis to raise $2 billion. But then we didn't because I succeeded in getting capital from other countries and philanthropists,” said Poonawalla.
Credit: BCCL
Globally, the top nine billionaires lost a cumulative $339 billion – which is almost the same as Hong Kong’s GDP of $361 billion.
Credit: Canva
“It’s a bad year for semiconductors, cloud solutions, cyber security, payment systems, e-commerce, batteries and new energy,” the 2023 M3M Hurun Global Rich List.
Credit: Canva