As per a list of richest Indians put out by renowned business magazine Forbes late last year, Mittal and Mukesh Ambani were ranked at the top two positions, followed by Anil at the third position.

At Rs 450 a share IPO that was concluded last week, Anil's stake in Reliance Power, to be listed in early February, would amount to about 13 billion dollars. Even before the issue, Anil's fortune was on an upswing while those of Mukesh and Mittal fell since the Forbes list was announced.

Forbes had calculated Lakshmi Mittal's wealth at 51 billion dollars, based on the value of his shareholding in the world's largest steelmaker ArcelorMittal as on November 2.

However, a plunge in ArcelorMittal's market value since then (about 20 per cent down in past three months) as well as a small drop in his shareholding has cut down his wealth by close to 12 billion dollars.

Mittal's current holding in ArcelorMittal stands at 623.62 million shares or 43.04 per cent, down from 44.79 per cent in November, giving him a net worth of 39.1 billion dollars, on the basis of the company's closing share price of 62.7 dollars on Friday in New York.