Vinod Shantilal Adani, the elder brother of billionaire Indian businessman Gautam Adani, and who figured prominently in the controversy surrounding the Indian conglomerate Adani Group, is the richest Indian in the UAE in 2023, with a wealth of $12.9 billion according to the latest list of richest Indians globally.
His ranking among the richest Indians globally, however, tumbled to 12 this year from 6 last year – apparently a reflection of the market beating of Adani Group company stocks this year after the scathing Hindenburg Research report.
LuLu Group promoter Yusuff Ali MA, with almost half the size of rich as that of Adani at $6.65 billion, is the second wealthiest, followed by Burjeel Holdings’ chief Shamsheer Vayalil ($4 billion) and GEMS Group’s Sunny Varkey ($3.16 billion), according to the 360 ONE Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2023.
Significantly, Shamsheer Vayalil, who created a flutter in the UAE stock market with the $2.83 billion (AED10.4 billion) IPO of his healthcare group Burjeel Holdings in 2022, is also among the record 283 rich Indians entered the Hurun’s list this year.
Vayalil also accomplished the unique feat of figuring among the new fifteen Indians who entered the top 100 on the list on his debut.
US top choice for NRI residency
The UAE is also home to the second largest contingent of wealthy Indians globally, with as many as 20 Indian-origin businessmen residing in the country.
The US is the most preferred country for wealthy non-resident Indians (NRIs) with 47 of them making it their home now, while home country India has as many as 1,223 globally rich sons-of-soil residing in the country.
This year’s Hurun India Rich List has as many as 96 NRIs figuring in it, with London-based Gopichand Hinduja and family of Hinduja Group topping the list with a wealth of $21.23 billion, closely followed by steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal – also living in London – at $19.52 billion.
Dubai-based Vinod Adani figures third, while Yusuff Ali figures 7th in the richest NRI list this year.
As high as 84 percent of wealthy NRIs in this year’s list are self-made, according to the Hurun report.
With 133 individuals from the sector, pharmaceutical leads the industry list, followed by chemicals and petrochemicals (110) and industrial products (96) in the 2023 Hurun list.
Other rich Indians in UAE
Prithviraj Jindal and family and Ratan Jindal and family – both belonging to the India-based steel-to-infrastructure Jindal Group, Saket Burman and family of Indian FMCG major Dabur, Divyank Turakhia and Bhavin Turakhia (investment and software), Faizal Kottikollon (KEF Holdings) and Azad Moopen and family (Aster DM Healthcare) are the other top wealthy Indians in the UAE.
This year’s list also includes Danube promoter Rizwan Sajan, Petrochem ME’s Yogesh Mehta, IBS Software chairman V K Mathews and family and Malabar Gold’s Abdul Salam K P.
Faisal Husain and Tanveer Saulat (Synechron), Rashid Ahmed Mirza (Mirza International), Deepak Kumar Seth and family (Pearl Global Industries) and Suhel Khatib (Medley Pharmaceuticals) are the other UAE-based rich Indians figuring in this year’s Hurun global rich Indians list.
Interestingly, of the 20 rich Indians in the UAE, as many as 18 are based in Dubai, while only two – Yusuff Ali and Vayalil – are based in the capital city Abu Dhabi.
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