India's Top Wealth Creators and Destroyers

India’s biggest private-sector company Reliance Industries, by market capitalization, is the biggest wealth creator for the fifth time in a row from 2007, reveals Motilal Oswal’s “Wealth Creation Study 2006-11” report. Suzlon and Anil Ambani's Reliance Communication topped the list of the top wealth destroyers, where RCom alone accounted for a destruction of Rs 25,200 crore.

The survey evaluated the top 100 wealth creating companies during the period of 2006-11. The study highlighted the fact that leaving behind big multinationals, Reliance has emerged as the biggest wealth creator. The company has managed to exceed the record of Hindustan Unilever (HUL), which has appeared as the biggest wealth creator four times in a row from the year 1996 to 1999. During the past five years, Reliance Industries has added up almost 1,74,200 crore of investor wealth. The other top five wealth creators listed by the study are TCS, SBI, Infosys and NMDC. However, illustrating a more extensive wealth creation, the contribution of the top 10 wealth creators has been falling steadily from 76 percent in 2003 to 42 percent in 2011.

The report also demonstrated the list of the biggest wealth destroyers and stated that the total wealth destroyed equals to 3,25,400 crore which is 15 percent of the total wealth created. Out of the total wealth destroyed companies, Suzlon, Reliance Communication and Satyam Computers together accounted for 25 percent of the total wealth demolished. Amid sectors, capital Goods, telecom, technology, construction/real estate accounted for almost 56 percent of shareholder wealth destroyed.

According to the last survey which reported the financial years from 2006 and 2011 (April-March), total wealth ruined stood at almost 15 percent of total wealth created which was only 2 percent.

Identifying the top 5 most consistent wealth creators, the report placed Kotak Mahindra first in the list followed by Sun Pharma, Asian Paints, and HDFC Bank. It is also clearly visible from the report that the private sector financials are appearing as blue chip stocks with high, and more importantly, persistent growth achievement, giving an example of HDFC BANK which for the last 38 consecutive years remitted 30 percent PAT growth.

Sanwaria Agro topped the chart among the fastest wealth creators between Financial Year 2006-2011, as the company added up 43 billion to its market cap at a CAGR of 119 percent per annum.  Companies like Adani Enterprises and Bhushan Steel emerged second and third, adding growth of 86 percent and 64 percent, respectively. However, the report warns that some of these fastest wealth creating stocks could be temporary multi-achievers, developed by the blend of periodical feature of business and questionable quality of management. The report indicated that Sanwaria Agro has increased its share of wealth from 12 percent in FY06 to 24 percent in FY11 .