Lord Venkateswara temple in Tirupati has net worth more than Wipro, Nestle, ONGC

New Delhi: The world-famous Lord Venkateswara Temple in Tirupati is worth over Rs 2.5 lakh crore (about USD 30 billion), surpassing the market capitalization of Nestle, state-owned oil majors ONGC and IOC, and Wipro, an IT services company.

For the first time since its founding in 1933, Tirumala Tirupati Devlasthanams, keeper of the temple dedicated to Tirupati's presiding deity, disclosed its financial status.

Its assets include 10.25 tonnes of gold deposits in banks, 2.5 tonnes of gold jewellery, about Rs 16,000 crore of deposits in banks, and 960 properties across India. All these total to over Rs 2.5 lakh crore.

At the current trading price, the net worth of Tirupati temple is more than several blue-chip Indian firms, according to stock exchange data.

Bengaluru-based Wipro had a market cap of Rs 2.14 lakh crore at the close of trading on Friday, while UltraTech Cement had a market value of Rs 1.99 lakh crore.

Swiss multinational food and drink major Nestle's India unit, with a market cap of Rs 1.96 lakh crore, too was valued below it.

State-owned oil behemoths Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) too were valued less than the temple trust and so were power giant NTPC Ltd, automakers Mahindra and Mahindra and Tata Motors, the world's largest coal producer Coal India Ltd, mining conglomerate Vedanta, real estate firm DLF and several others.

Only about two dozen companies have market valuations larger than the temple trust's net worth.

These include billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd (Rs 17.53 lakh crore), Tata Consultancy Services (Rs 11.76 lakh crore), HDFC Bank (Rs 8.34 lakh crore), Infosys (Rs 6.37 lakh crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 6.31 lakh crore), Hindustan Unilever Ltd (Rs 5.92 lakh crore), State Bank of India (Rs 5.29 lakh crore), Bharti Airtel (Rs 4.54 lakh crore) and ITC (Rs 4.38 lakh crore).

Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) is growing richer and richer as the cash and gold offerings made by devotees at the hill temple continue to rise and fixed deposits in banks are also generating more income in view of the increase in interest rates, a temple official said.

The assets owned by TTD include land parcels, buildings, cash and gold deposits in the banks, given as offerings to the temple by devotees.

Assigning a value to priceless antique jewellery and properties including cottages and guest houses on the seven hills to provide amenities to devotees could be misleading and hence does not form part of the estimated general asset value, temple officials said.

The sprawling seven hills are held sacred by devotees and are revered as the abode of Lord Venkateswara.

In its about Rs 3,100 crore annual budget for 2022-23 presented in February, the TTD has projected over Rs 668 crore as income in the form of interest from cash deposits in banks.

Also, Rs 1,000 crore income was predicted in the form of cash offerings alone -- by about 2.5 crore devotees -- in the hundi of the hill temple

TTD administers a large number of temples in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Odisha, Haryana, Maharashtra and New Delhi.

With PTI inputs