How We Did It

The Fortune India Rich List — created with partners Waterfield Advisors — chronicles the wealth of India’s dollar billionaires.

The list is a ranking of the wealth of entrepreneurs of listed and unlisted companies. In cases of families where there is no formal split despite individual family members running independent businesses, the wealth is consolidated with the current head of family or immediate successor. In most cases, the wealth of siblings and spouses is clubbed together.

In the case of business houses where there are cross holdings among listed and unlisted entities the highest value has been considered. For instance, if a promoter’s listed entity (A) holds a stake in another listed entity (B) of the same group, and, if the promoter’s holding value in A is lower than the holding value of A in B, we have considered the value of A’s holding in B.

In the case of businessmen running listed entities, the wealth estimate is based on stock prices as on August 16 2024; shareholding as of December 2023. The rupee-dollar exchange rate is 83.95, as of August 16, 2024.

We also invite entrepreneurs for details of their listed and unlisted assets through an online survey, besides seeking additional information regarding investments outside of the listed business: such as stakes in other public companies (where the holding is less than 1%) and in other private entities/ start-ups, real estate, automobiles, jewellery, overseas assets, cryptos, etc.

In instances where the entity is unlisted, we have used the price-earnings (PE) multiple of the respective sector, and financials for FY23. In the absence of an industry index, we have considered the PE multiple of the closest listed company from the same industry, sector or line of business. In some instances, sales to market cap or similar ratios have been considered. Our valuation for start-ups is based on the last available equity financing round as disclosed by Traxcn, the Bengaluru-based database provider.

The primary list is confined to Indian citizens & families domiciled in the country or those who derive a vast majority of their wealth from businesses within India. Given the dynamic nature of equity markets, wealth estimates will vary from the published list.

While the Fortune India-Waterfield Advisors Rich List is a comprehensive ranking of the country’s richest billionaires, there may be several businessmen and families whose wealth may not have been adequately captured by Capitaline and other databases, often because either their details are not filed with the Registrar of Companies or are filed way beyond the stipulated deadline or the record date of this list.