MUKESH AMBANI overtook Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma to become Asia’s richest person, as he positions Reliance Industries Ltd. to disrupt the e-commerce space in India.

The chairman of India’s refining-to-telecom conglomerate, Ambani was estimated to be worth US$44.3 billion Friday, with Reliance Industries rising 1.6 percent to a record 1,099.8 rupees (US$16.05). Ma’s wealth stood at US$44 billion at close of trade Thursday in the U.S., where the company is listed.

Ambani has added US$4 billion to his fortune this year, as Reliance doubled its petrochemicals capacity and investors cheered the success of his disruptive telecom upstart Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.

Then earlier this month, the tycoon unveiled plans to leverage his 215 million telecom subscribers to expand his e-commerce offerings, taking on the likes of Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Ma has lost US$1.4 billion in 2018.

Ambani, best known for executing large-scale projects, spearheaded construction of the world’s largest refining complex in Jamnagar, owns the most-widespread mobile data network globally and claims to have India’s biggest, as well as most-profitable retail firm.

At this month’s annual shareholders’ meeting, Ambani said Reliance saw its “biggest growth opportunity in creating a hybrid, online-to-offline new commerce platform,” involving the group’s Reliance Retail Ltd. and Reliance Jio businesses. The “size of Reliance will more than double” by 2025, Ambani said at the meeting. (SD-Agencies)