WORLD ADDS 437 BILLIONAIRES LAST YEAR, MORE THAN ONE BILLIONAIRE A DAY. CHINA MINTS FOUR NEW BILLIONAIRES A WEEK

2,694 BILLIONAIRES IN THE WORLD, UP 437 FROM LAST YEAR. NEW RECORD

TOTAL WEALTH UP 31% TO US$10.5 TRILLION, EQUIVALENT TO 13.2% OF GLOBAL GDP

JEFF BEZOS, 54, OF AMAZON ADDS US$51BN TO STORM INTO 1^st PLACE WITH US$123BN

WARREN BUFFETT OVERTAKES BILL GATES AND BREAKS THROUGH US$100BN MARK AFTER 31% JUMP IN WEALTH

CHINESE BILLIONAIRES GROW BY 210 TO 819, HUGE 40% MORE THAN IN USA

INDIA RECLAIMS THIRD POSITION FROM GERMANY, ADDING 31 BILLIONAIRES

FOR THE FIRST TIME TOP 10 ALL SELF MADE

PONY MA OF TENCENT BECOMES RICHEST ASIAN WITH US$47BN

WITH US$5.3BN, CHRIS LARSEN OF RIPPLE IS OFFICIALLY THE FIRST BLOCKCHAIN BILLIONAIRE

HUNGARY-BORN FINANCIER GEORGE SOROS, 87, DONATES US$18BN TO BRING HIS LIFETIME GIVING TO US$32BN

MORE THAN ONE BILLIONAIRE CREATED EVERY DAY OF THE LAST YEAR, OF WHICH FOUR EVERY WEEK WERE TRACED IN CHINA

LARGEST RICH LIST PROVIDER IN WORLD RELEASES HURUN GLOBAL RICH LIST 2018

Key Findings

1.      2,694 BILLIONAIRES IN WORLD, UP 437 FROM LAST YEAR. RUPERT HOOGEWERF, HURUN REPORT CHAIRMAN & CHIEF RESEARCHER, SAYS, “A BOOM IN CHINA, A WEAK DOLLAR COUPLED WITH US TAX CUTS HAS DRIVEN BILLIONAIRES TO BREAK NEW RECORDS.”

2.      GOING UP: 1,508 LISTERS SAW THEIR WEALTH INCREASE + 567 NEW FACES. GOING DOWN: 363 SAW WEALTH DECREASE

3.      INDIA RECLAIMS THIRD SPOT, WHICH IT HAD LOST TO GERMANY LAST YEAR, WITH 31 NEW BILLIONAIRES

4.      BILL GATES LOSES TOP SPOT TO JEFF BEZOS, DESPITE ADDING US$10BN TO HIS WEALTH AND AFTER GIVING AWAY US$5BN.

5.      TECHNOLOGY KEY SOURCE OF WEALTH. REAL ESTATE OVERTAKES MANUFACTURING FOR SECOND PLACE, FOLLOWED BY INVESTMENTS IN FOURTH PLACE.

6.      MANUFACTURING AND FOOD & BEVERAGE ARE THE FASTEST GROWING SECTORS FOR BILLIONAIRES THIS YEAR

7.      WOMEN MAKE UP 15% OF THE LIST, SAME AS LAST YEAR. 184 SELF-MADE FEMALE BILLIONAIRES, UP FROM 152 LAST YEAR. CHINA LED THE WAY WITH A STAGGERING 78%. THE RICHEST WOMAN IS ALICE WALTON, 68, OF WALMART WITH US$48BN, AFTER LILIANE BETTENCOURT PASSED AWAY AGED 94. RICHEST SELF-MADE WOMAN IN THE WORLD IS ZHOU QUNFEI OF LENS WITH US$10BN. HOOGEWERF SAID, “CHINESE WOMEN COMPLETELY DOMINATE WHEN IT COMES TO THE WORLD’S MOST SUCCESSFUL WOMEN IN BUSINESS.”

8.      19 NEW ENTRANTS TO TOP 100 LED BY CHINESE REAL ESTATE DEVELOPER YANG HUIYAN, 37, OF COUNTRY GARDEN, WHICH IS EXPECTED TO GENERATE REVENUES OF A STAGGERING US$150BN, MORE THAN TRIPLING HER WEALTH.

9.      69% TOTALLY SELF-MADE, 22% PARTLY SELF-MADE AND 9% INHERITED.  CHINESE LEAD THE WORLD FOR SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRES. FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE RECORDS BEGAN, THE TOP 10 ARE ALL SELF-MADE.

10.    9.1% FIRST GENERATION IMMIGRANT BILLIONAIRES, LED BY SERGEY BRIN OF GOOGLE AND ELON MUSK OF TESLA, WHO IMMIGRATED TO USA FROM RUSSIA AND SOUTH AFRICA.

11.    32% ARE FROM CHINA, UP 3%, DESPITE CHINESE MAKING UP ONLY 20% OF WORLD POPULATION.

12.    DONALD TRUMP (48.2MN), BILL GATES (44MN), OPRAH WINFREY (41.6MN), ELON MUSK (19.9MN) HAVE BIGGEST TWITTER FOLLOWINGS. ENTERTAINER ZHAO WEI LEADS IN CHINA WITH 80 MILLION FOLLOWERS. JACK MA HAS 20 MILLION.

13.    85 ARE FORTY OR UNDER, OF WHICH 47 ARE SELF-MADE. YOUNGEST LISTER IS NORWEGIAN ALEXANDRA ANDRESEN, 21, WORTH US$1.3BN INHERITED FROM HER FATHER. THE YOUNGEST SELFMADE BILLIONAIRE IS IRISH HARVARD-GRADUATE JOHN COLLISON, 27, OF STRIPE WITH US$1.2BN.

14.    EUROPE’S NUMBER ONE ‘KING OF LUXURY’ BERNARD ARNAULT, 68, OF LVMH STORMS INTO TOP 5 WITH A 105% INCREASE IN NET WEALTH

15.    2.7% ARE FOURTH GENERATION OR MORE: 74 BILLIONAIRES COMING FROM 47 COMPANIES.

16.    27 BILLIONAIRES FROM LAST YEAR’S LIST PASSED AWAY. RICHEST WAS INGVAR KAMPRAD WITH US$47BN. YOUNGEST WAS NIKLAS HERLIN (AGED 53) OF KONE CORPORATION. DAVID ROCKFELLER SR OF STANDARD OIL DIED AGED 101.

17.    ASIA PIPPED NORTH AMERICA FOR THE FOURTH YEAR RUNNING IN TERMS OF TOTAL WEALTH CREATED, US$4.33TN COMPARED WITH US$3.38TN.

18.    CHINESE STOCK EXCHANGES ATTRACTED MORE THAN DOUBLE THE NUMBER OF BILLIONAIRES THAN USA STOCK EXCHANGES, 601 COMPARED WITH 252.

19.    CHINESE STAR SIGNS.  BILLIONAIRES BORN IN THE YEAR OF THE SNAKE TOP THE LIST FOR THE THIRD YEAR RUNNING. THOSE BORN IN THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON HAD THE BEST YEAR, SHOOTING UP FOUR PLACES. NUMBER ONE JEFF BEZOS IS A RABBIT. RATS AND PIGS PROPPED UP THE BOTTOM.

(28 February 2018, Los Angeles, Beijing and Mumbai) Hurun Report today released the Hurun Global Rich List 2018, a ranking of the US-Dollar-billionaires in the world. Wealth calculations are a snapshot of 31 January 2018. This is the seventh year of the ranking.

The List at a glance

The Hurun Global Rich List 2018 ranked 2,694 billionaires from 68 countries and from 2,157 companies in another record-breaking year for the world’s billionaires.

Total wealth increased by a staggering 31% to US$10.5 trillion, equivalent to 13.2% of global GDP, and almost double the 7% of global GDP six years ago. Rupert Hoogewerf said, “Never has so much wealth been concentrated in the hands of so few.”

It has been an outstanding year for billionaires: 1508 saw their wealth increase and there were 567 new faces.

Chinese billionaires are pulling away from the USA for the third year running, 819 compared with 571.  Just two years ago, they were neck and neck at 534 and 535. Hoogewerf said, “China is going through an amazing period of entrepreneurship, adding 210 billionaires in the past year.”

It has been a good year for India, claiming back its third place after adding 31 billionaires, on the back of a record performance of the Indian stock markets.

The average lister is aged 63, one year younger than last year.

Rupert Hoogewerf says, “The world today has the best part of 6,000 dollar billionaires, assuming that for every one we found, we have probably at least one if not more, particularly from the Gulf states.”

Hoogewerf continues, “A boom in China, a weak dollar and a 26% hike in Nasdaq have led to a surge in dollar billionaires across the world. The US dollar depreciated 16% against the Euro, 12% against the British Pound, 10% against the Chinese Yuan and 6% against the Indian Rupee. Global economic growth was at 3% last year, the fastest rate since 2011 and a significant acceleration compared with 2.4% the previous year.”

Top Ten – Hurun Global Rich List 2018

7 of the Top 10 are from the USA.  Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and Mark Zuckerberg led the charge, adding US$51bn, US$24bn and US$21bn respectively. Larry Page, 44, of Google broke into the world’s Top 10 for the first time, and Bernard Arnault, 68, of LVMH returned to the Top 10, doubling his wealth to US$78bn. The Top 10 grew 37% on average.

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2018

↑ Rank increase yoy ↓ Rank decrease yoy - No Rank change yoy * New to Top 10

Jeff Bezos, 54, shot up to World Number One for the first time after Amazon stock rose 70% year on year. Bezos becomes the third Number One in six years, after Carlos Slim and Bill Gates. Bezos first broke into the Hurun Top 10 two years ago. Last year, Amazon reported a revenue of US$177bn and net profit of US$3bn. Bezos recently announced a US$33mn donation to help 1,000 immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children to attend college.

Warren Buffett, 87, retains No.2 spot with a 31% increase in his wealth, and to becoming the second person ever to break through the US$100bn barrier. Berkshire Hathaway shares rose after the company announced a stake in Teva Pharmaceuticals and an increase in stake in various well performing assets which include General Motors, Bank of New York Mellon and Apple. Buffett recently made media headlines, suggesting that US tax cuts have added significantly to his wealth.

Bill Gates, 62, dropped down to third place this year. Last year Gates donated US$4.6bn worth of Microsoft shares to his foundation, his largest donation since 2000. The gift reduces Gates’s stake in Microsoft, which he co-founded in 1975, to just 1.3% from 24% in 1996. Nevertheless, Gates’s wealth increased by 11% to US$90bn backed by the performance of his investment portfolio, led by investments including Crown Castle, UPS and FEMSA. Rupert Hoogewerf said, “For the first time in five years, Gates is no longer the richest person on the planet.”

Mark Zuckerberg, 33, up one to fourth, saw his wealth grow 36% to US$79bn, on the back of a hike in Facebook’s share price. Zuckerberg donated US$1.9bn to the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation for education, housing, science and improving the criminal justice system.

Bernard Arnault, 68, returns to the Top 10 after his wealth doubled to US$78bn, on the back of a surge in the value of LVMH after the acquisition of Christian Dior. Arnault’s stake in LVMH increased from 36% to 46%.

Amancio Ortega, 81, of Zara down two to sixth place, despite a 6% increase to US$73bn. Daughter Sandra, 48, also makes the list, ranked 313 with US$6.3 billion. In 2017 Ortega donated US$320 million towards cancer fighting equipment.

Carlos Slim Helu, 78, maintained seventh place despite a 46% increase to US$67bn, on the back of 50% increase in the share price of America Movil. Slim recently made headlines when offering to mediate between the Mexican government and President Trump.

Larry Ellison, 73, of Oracle is down two spots to eighth, despite his wealth increasing by 13% to US$54bn. Ellison made the news recently for aggressively trying to win share from Amazon’s cloud business.

Larry Page, 44, is up 3 places to break into the Top 10 for the first time, on the back of a 35% increase in his wealth to US$50bn.  Larry Page and Avatar director James Cameron have joined forces to mine asteroids and Page is trying to bring a flying car to the market by 2022.

With a net worth of US$49bn, Michael Bloomberg, former Mayor of New York City, 76, saw his wealth increase by 17% to keep him in the Top 10. Bloomberg is a vocal gun control activist, matching US$750,000 of donations received within 24 hours of the Florida High School Shooting earlier this month.

Where they live

The ‘Big Two’ are Greater China and the USA with 819 and 571 billionaires, making up over half of the billionaires on the planet. It has been a good year for India too, which shot past Germany into third place. Mexico and Chile broke into the Top 20 for the first time. Beijing is now the undisputed billionaire capital of the world, adding 37 to 131, ahead of New York. “There are now more billionaires in the neighbouring cities of Hong Kong and Shenzhen than there are in the whole of California, 158 compared with 139,” says Hoogewerf.

Table: Where they live

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2018

↑ Rank increase yoy ↓ Rank decrease yoy - No Rank change yoy * New to Top 20 (ranking increased this year to Top 30)

Beijing is the ‘Billionaire Capital of the World’ for the third year running, ahead of New York. Guangzhou added 16 billionaires to propel it into the Top 10. One third of the cities from top 30 city of residences are from greater china. Only three countries had two or more cities in the Top 30: China, USA and India.

Greater China: The region is the world’s absolute No 1 with 819 billionaires, a staggering 210 more than last year. The combined net worth of the Chinese billionaires is US$2.5trillion, or 3.2% of global GDP. Real Estate has generated most number of billionaires (164), followed by Manufacturing (159) and TMT (105). Led by Beijing, 6 Chinese cities make the top 10 cities and 10 the Top 30. Average age is 58, five years younger than the average of the global list. China is the number 1 in the world in terms of generating self-made billionaires, their stories akin to ‘rags to riches’, and is home to 80% of the world’s self-made female billionaires. Within Mainland China, there are 3 self-made non-Chinese billionaires: US-born cancer-treatment tycoon John Oyler, 48, of BeiGene with US$1.4bn and two Danish clothing retailers Dan Friis and Alan Warburg of Bestseller.

USA is second behind China with 571 billionaires, up 19 since last year. Investments overtook Technology to become the main source of wealth for American billionaires, with 120 and 116 billionaires respectively for each, followed by Retail with 56. The combined wealth of the US billionaires was US$3 trillion, or 3.9% of global GDP, or just a little more than the GDP of France. New York has the absolute highest concentration of billionaires (93), followed by San Francisco, Los Angeles and Dallas. California is the state with the most number of billionaires, of which over half are from the Bay Area. The USA is the world-capital for immigrant billionaires. Average age of US billionaires increased to 66, three years higher than the average age of the global list.

India climbs to 3rd position with 131 billionaires. This list would be 170, if we were to consider Indian origin billionaires. Pharmaceuticals led with 19 billionaires, followed by Automobile & Components with 14 and Consumer products with 11. Combined wealth of the Indian Billionaires increased by 49% to US$454bn. Average age is 64. Mumbai is the preferred hub for most Indian billionaires followed by New Delhi. 31 billionaires migrated from India, with UAE, UK and USA as preferred destinations.

UK grabbed 4^th spot with 118 billionaires, 29 more than last year. London is the undisputed city of choice for 63 of them. Retail and Real estate led the way with 21 and 18 billionaires, followed by Manufacturing, with 13. UK billionaires have a combined wealth of US$416bn, an increase of 41%. Leonard Blavatnik (US$20bn) is the richest person living in the UK.

Germany drops to 5^th spot with 114 billionaires, 5 more than last year. With a net worth of US$30bn, Georg Schaeffler, 53, of Schaeffler Group overtook Dieter Schwarz to become the new German Number One. Retail, Food & Beverage and TMT led the way, with 17 billionaires each. Hamburg and Bielefeld are the billionaire capitals of the country with 10 and 8 finding residence there. Average age was 63.  34 migrated out of Germany, and Switzerland was the preferred destination for one third of them.

Switzerland secured 6th position with 83 billionaires, up by 6. Geneva is the Swiss billionaire capital, with 21, followed by Zurich with 11. Preferred sectors are Pharmaceuticals (15 billionaires), Energy and Financial Services (7 billionaires). Combined wealth of the Swiss billionaires cumulates to US$330bn, up 39%.

Russia slipped to 7th position with 71 billionaires, up by 3. All are self-made. The most popular sectors are Energy and Metals & Mining with 16 and 15 billionaires each. Moscow is home for 62 of them. Combined wealth of the Russian billionaires comes to US$318bn, up 22%. With US$20bn Alexey Mordashov (52), of Severstal, Metals and Mining giant, is the richest Russian.

France, the luxury capital of the world, retains 8th position with 51 billionaires, one more than last year. Combined wealth of the French billionaires is US$409bn, 35% more than last year. The preferred sectors are Food & Beverage and Retail with 9 and 6 billionaires respectively. Paris is the preferred city and is home to 36 billionaires. The richest man in France, Bernard Arnault, is also the Number One European.

Brazil & Canada share 9th spot with 49 billionaires each. Brazil is up by 6 billionaires from last year, with a combined wealth of US175bn, up 9%. Financial service is the preferred industry with 12 billionaires, followed by Construction & Engineering (6) and TMT (4). Sao Paulo is the preferred city in Brazil with 28 billionaires followed by Rio de Janeiro. 60% have inherited their wealth.

Canada is up by 14 billionaires since last year. Their combined wealth is US$160bn, up 21%. The preferred sector is Retail with 10 billionaires followed by TMT with 7. Toronto is the preferred city for 14 billionaires followed by Montreal.

Source of Wealth by Industry – Hurun Global Rich List 2018

It has been a great year for Food & Beverage and Metals & Mining, with both sectors up 32% and 31% respectively in terms of the number of billionaires. All sectors exhibited positive growth with Manufacturing sector registering the lowest growth of 5% in the Top 10 industries.  Real estate stepped up from fourth to second place.

The ‘Big Four’ of TMT, Real Estate, Manufacturing and Investments accounts 44% of the cumulative wealth and contributes 41% total billionaires.

USA and China accounted for 66% of TMT billionaires in the list.

TABLE: Source of Wealth – Hurun Global Rich List 2018

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2018

New Ways of making a billion

Online retail adding physical outlets. Jeff Bezos of Amazon bought Whole Foods last year for US$13.4bn, branching towards physical grocery stores.

Chat to Payments: Jack Ma Yun of Alibaba and Pony Ma Huateng of Tencent are leading the way for China to become a cashless society.

Shared economy: Cheng Wei of Didi is catching up to Travis Kalanick of Uber, which had a difficult year with Kalanick leaving the company. Adam Neuman, 38, and Miguel Mckelvey, 43, of WeWork are leading the charge for shared office space.

Robotics: The leader is ‘Drone King’ Frank Wang Tao, 38, of DJI with US$5.3bn.

Interstellar opportunities: Space exploration is heating up. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is valued at US$21bn, the most valuable space exploration company in the world. Jeff Bezos is promoting his reusable rocket company Blue Origin aimed at “colonizing space”. Larry Ellison of Oracle is seeking to mine asteroids.

Hyperloop: Some of the billionaires including Elon Musk and Richard Branson are seriously investing into Hyperloop technology, the innovative transportation tech. Virgin signed an MOU with the Maharashtra government for its first ever Hyperloop to be unveiled by 2023.

Twitter profitability: Jack Dorsey of Twitter has seen his wealth more than double to US$3.7bn, perhaps as a result of Donald Trump’s endorsement and achieving profitability for the first time.

Blockchain: 2017 was a breakout year for the crypto asset class, with retail and institutional investors alike trying to get in on the potentially transformative technology. Chris Larsen (US$5.3bn) is the richest crypto billionaire, owing his sudden jump of wealth to the rising popularity of crypto currencies.

New Entrants to Top 100.  There were 19 new entrants to the Top 100, led by Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers of L'Oreal who inherited the wealth from her mother Liliane, who died in September last year aged 94. Others include Chinese real estate heir Yang Huiyan of Country Garden, whose share prices more than tripled in the past year and Chinese car tycoon Li Shufu of Geely, who just bought into 10% of Daimler for US9bn this month. Lei Jun of MI surged back 72% on the back of stronger mobile phone sales. India’s Gautam Adani doubled his wealth to US$14bn.

TABLE: New entrants to the Top 100

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2018

Young & Rich. There were 85 billionaires aged 40 or under, 7 up from last year. 47 are self-made with 38 inherited. USA and China led the way with 26 and 24, making up 60% of the Under Forties List. With 8 billionaires, German medical device manufacturer B. Braun contributed the most billionaires under 40. 20% are women.

TABLE: Youngest Self-Made Billionaires

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2018

Alma Mater – Harvard produced more billionaires than any other school.

Immigrants: 9.1% of the billionaires are first generation immigrants, led by 64 in the USA, 45 in the UK and 40 in Switzerland. Sergey Brin, 44, of Google is the wealthiest immigrant. Hoogewerf said, “Whilst the USA is the preferred destination of young immigrants who go on to become billionaires, the UK and Switzerland are the world’s capitals for billionaire immigrants.”

TABLE: Top 10 Immigrant Billionaires – Hurun Global Rich List 2018

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2018

Politically Affiliated Billionaires

Donald Trump, the highest-profile billionaire politician, has seen his wealth drop by US$1bn to US3.5bn, dropping him down 352 places to 747.

Hurun Rich Listers include the prime minister of the Czech Republic Andrej Babis (Rank:563, US$4.3bn, Agrofert), who took office in December last year; monarchs of Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Dubai and Liechtenstein; former prime ministers of Georgia Bidzina Ivanishvili, of Italy Silvio Berlusconi (Rank:262, US$7.2bn, Mediaset) and of Lebanon Najib Mikati (Rank:1082, US$2.6bn, MTN),

Those who have won elections include Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York; Magdalena Blocher, an elected official in the National Council of the Swiss parliament; Serge Dassault (Rank:40, US$24bn, Dassault System), a French senator; Savitri Jindal (Rank:149, US$11bn, JSW Steel) minister for Haryana state government in India.

Several have contested elections and lost, including Russel Weiner of Rockstar energy drink, who ran for a seat in the California State Assembly in 1998; Ronald Lauder (Rank:414, US$5.4bn, Estee Lauder), heir to the cosmetic giant, ran for mayor of New York; Tom Golisano (Rank:1043, US$2.7bn, Paychex) ran for Governor of New York.

Others prefer to stay in the background but support political parties. George Soros (Rank: 217, US$8.5bn, Soros Fund Management) launched ‘The Best for Britain’ with the objective to reverse Brexit. Charles and David Koch pledged to spend close to US$400mn to promote conservative policies. Sheldon Adelson spent more than US$200mn in the past few years championing GOP candidates and conservative causes.

Mikhail Prokhorov (Rank:171, US$10bn, Polyus Gold) joined Russian politics in 2011 and formed the ‘Party of Civic Platform’.

In China, 106 billionaires are either delegates to the National People’s Congress (47) or the CPPCC (59).

Chinese diaspora. 32% of the world’s billionaires are of Chinese origin, up by 3%. Outside of Greater China, the Chinese diaspora are based predominantly in South East Asia, led by Singapore. Chinese make up 20% of the world’s population.

Greater China was made up of Mainland China with 688 (+196), Hong Kong 80 (+15) and Taiwan 42 (+7) billionaires respectively.

TABLE: Chinese billionaire diaspora around the world

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2018

27 billionaires died, up 8 from last year. Between them, they passed down US$156bn. The youngest was Kone Corporation’s Niklas Herlin, aged 53. Average age of death was 83.

TABLE: The billionaire obituary – Hurun Global Rich List 2018

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2018

Oldest: The oldest on the list is Chee Chen Tung of Johnson Electric aged 100.

Richest Family: The Walton family of Walmart is the richest family in the world with a cumulative net worth of US$165bn, ahead of Jeff Bezos.

Billionaire philanthropy

George Soros, 87, led the way with a US$18bn donation to his Open Society Foundation, whose objective is to improve the state of the world. Soros’ lifetime donations amount to US$32bn.

Bill Gates, 62, donated US$4.6bn worth of Microsoft shares to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, taking his lifetime donations to US$35bn.

Mark Zuckerberg, 33, donated US$1.9bn of Facebook stock to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, with the objective of revolutionising education, promoting scientific research and improving learning techniques.

Michael Dell, 53, donated US$1bn to the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, which works for child education, health and empowerment.

Sheryl Sandberg, 48, of Facebook donated US$230mn to the Sheryl Sandberg & David Goldberg Family Foundation. An unexpected widow herself, she started OptionB.org to help women and families grieving loss of loved ones. Her website, leanin.org, fosters female leadership.

Ingvar Kamprad of IKEA died in January 2018, leaving the bulk of his US$47bn wealth to the Ingka Foundation, which is today one of the largest charities in the world.

Big Deals. Some deals that have made the headlines recently.

·         This month, Li Shufu of Geely paid US$9bn for 9.7% of Daimler.

·         Rupert Murdoch in December sold his flagship Twenty-First Century for US$52.4bn in all stock deal to Walt Disney.

·         In January, Maria Franca Fissolo of Ferrero Group, agreed to acquire the USA confectionary business from Nestlé for US$2.8bn in cash.

·         In November 2017, Discovery owned by Donald Newhouse (Rank 127) and Scripps Shareholders approved the proposed purchase of Scripps Networks Interactive for US$14.6bn.

·         Gautam Adani (Rank 98, US$14 bn) led Adani Transmission to sign an agreement in December to acquire Anil Ambani-led Reliance Infrastructure’s power generation and distribution business in Mumbai for US$2.1bn.

·         Keurig Green Mountain owned by Reimann family of Reckitt Benckiser (Rank 996) took control of Dr Pepper Snapple Group by paying US$18.7bn. Keurig Dr Pepper, as the new company will have annual revenue of about US$11bn and into direct competition with Coca-Cola and PepsiCo.

·         Aston Martin is targeting a valuation of US$6.8bn in a potential initial public offering of the British sports car maker.

·         Global spirits giant Bacardi announced acquisition of Patrón Spirits International, maker of the popular Patrón tequila, at an enterprise value of $5.1bn. John Paul DeJoria (Rank 454, US$5.1bn) is selling his 70% stake in the company.

·         Tilman Fertitta (Rank 675, US$3.8bn) bought NBA team Houston Rockets, for a record US$2.2bn from Les Alexander.

·         A consortium led by Xavier Niel (Rank 199, US$9.1bn) has acquired majority stake for just over US$1bn, in telecommunications company Eir.

·         Patrick Soon-Shiong (Rank 219, US$8.4bn) bought The Los Angeles Times from US publisher Tronc for US$500mn.

·         Israel’s Teddy Sagi (Rank 773, US$3.4bn) bought a 44% controlling stake in Brack Capital Properties, a German property developer, for $279mn.

·         Anil Agarwal (Rank 839, US$3.2 bn) bought US$2 billion more worth of shares in the mining company Anglo American and increasing his stake in the company to 21.3% from 12.3%.

·         Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta sold most of their stake in mixed martial arts promoter UFC at a US$4bn valuation, one of the largest sport transactions in the history.

·         Yuan Yafei of Sanpower paid US$820 million for pharma company Dendreon.

·         Guo Guangchang of Fosun invested over US$100m in French fashion brand Lanvin.

Billionaires spending big

·         Michael Dell paid a record $100.47 million for a penthouse on Manhattan’s Billionaires’ Row, making it the most expensive home ever sold in New York City.

·         A mansion on New York’s Upper East Side has sold for a record US$90 million to Ukrainian-born billionaire Leonard Blavatnik.

·         In January, Ken Griffin, US$8.4bn, bought the top four floors of a new condo tower on the    Gold Coast for $58.5 million, paying the highest price ever for a home in Chicago.

Some interesting facts about the list

·         The Olympian Billionaires. Agnete Kirk Thinggaard (US$3bn) is a Danish Olympic dressage rider, who represented Denmark at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro where she finished 26th in the individual and 6th in the team competition.

·         Michael Jordan, majority owner of Charlotte Bobcats, ranked 2361, led the USA men’s basketball team to gold medals in two Olympics in 1984 and 1992 respectively.

·         Ion Tiriac, national hero in Romania ranked 2361 Hurun Global Rich List represented Romanian ice hockey team in 1964 Winter Olympics. He also won French Open in men's doubles grand slam title, the 1970.

·         Divorce: London divorce court ruled in favour of Tatiana Akhmedova, entitling her of 41.5 percent share of Farkhad Akhmedov's US$1.8bn. Farkhad has not settled yet.

·         57% of billionaires derived their wealth from listed companies

·         In trouble with the law. Huang Guangyu of GoMe is in jail in China. Nirav Modi from India is under investigation for a US$2bn suspected scam. Xiao Jianhua of Tomorrow Holdings is under house arrest in China.

Largest Market Capitalizations. The largest companies founded by billionaires on the Hurun list are led by Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon. Tencent, Alibaba and PingAn from China, are the only non-USA companies that make the Top 10.

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2018

Self-made degrees: Hurun Research’s bespoke measure of the degree to which billionaires are inherited or self-made. The scorecard is out of five, where 1 is inherited and not active in business, and 5 is self-made without help from parents.

69% are totally self-made, 22% are partly self-made, inheriting a large stake from their parents but growing it aggressively, such as Donald Trump, while 9% are inherited.

The most popular route to becoming a billionaire is ‘self-made without much of a helping hand from parents’, such as Oprah Winfrey, making up 36% of the list and overtaking for the first time ‘self-made, with a helping hand from parents’, such as Mark Zuckerberg, who went to one of the most exclusive US private schools, at 32%. China is the world’s engine when it comes to self-made billionaires.

TABLE: Hurun Self-Made Scorecard by Country

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2018

Companies that created most Billionaires. Red Bull leads the way followed by Chilean retailer SACI Falabella and Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand. Red Bull’s shareholders are led by Dietrich Mateschitz, China’s Yan Bin and 11 children of co-founder Chaleo Yoovidhya.

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2018

TABLE: Billionaires by Continent

By Continent. Asia pulled away from North America with US$4.3tn compared with US$3.3tn, double that of Europe. Africa has 26 billionaires, led by Aliko Dangote, 59, of Dangote Cements.  The lions’ share of new billionaires came from China.

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2018

Stats

The cut-off required to break into the Top 1000 rose 27%.

TABLE: Stats – Cut-off through the Years

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2018

TABLE: Stats – Number of Billionaires through the Years

The number of billionaires has risen dramatically. Since 2013, the number of known billionaires has almost doubled. Total wealth of this elite group has grown by 91% to US$10.5 trillion. Greater China has added almost 500 billionaires in the past five years.

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2018 *In 2012, Hurun Global Rich List only ranked those with US$10bn

Chinese Star Signs It has been a good year for those born in the Year of the Dragon, which shot up four places to third. Those born in the year of the Snake continue to lead the way when it comes to the Hurun Global Rich List, led by Michael Dell. Rats and Pigs propped up the bottom, but take courage, Mark Zuckerberg is born in the Year of the Rat. New Number One Jeff Bezos is born in the Year of the Rabbit. 2018 is the Year of the Dog. The most successful dog is Chinese real estate tycoon Xu Jiayin.

TABLE: Chinese Star Signs of the Hurun Global Rich List

Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2018

TABLE: Top 100 - Hurun Global Rich List 2018

For the full list of 2,694 billionaires in the world,download the list

Download

Hurun Global Rich List 2018 ENG & CHN.xlsx

press release - Hurun Global Rich List ENGLISH 180228.docx

新闻稿：《2018胡润全球富豪榜》180228.docx

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