Superrich in India growing by leaps and bounds

Two hundred super-rich people in India had assets worth $500 million or more in 2017, an increase of 18% from 170 in the previous year, according to property consultant Knight Frank’s Wealth Report 2018.

What’s more, the number of super-rich in this category, called demi-billionaires by Knight Frank, are projected to surge. In the five years through 2017, the number of Indians with wealth of $500 million or more grew by 43%. In the next five years, Knight Frank estimates it will grow by 70%.

Nor are their slightly poorer cousins doing badly. In 2017, there were 2,920 individuals with wealth of $50 million or more, known as the ultrawealthy in the Knight Frank lexicon. By 2022, the consultant believes there will be 4,980 Indians in this category. The forecast for 2017-22 is that the growth in the number of ultrawealthy people in Asia will be mainly from three countries— a rise of 104% in China, 84% in the Philippines and 71% in India. As Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping reportedly said a generation ago, ‘To get rich is glorious’. As for the mere multi-millionaires, with wealth at $5 million or more, India had 47,720 of them last year. Their number has risen 56% in the last five years and will rise by 71% in the next five years.

For perspective, the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook had estimated average wealth per adult in India at $5,976 in 2017. The median wealth per adult Indian was estimated at $1,295. The report had said the richest 5% of the Indian population owned 64.1% of the country’s wealth.

India’s rich are growing their wealth much faster than the global average. The number of multi-millionaires, for example, was up 20% globally in the last five years—for India, the increase was 56%. In 2016-17 alone, they increased by 21%. That is not surprising. A Knight Frank presentation in the wealth report points out that 95% of Indians with net assets of $50 million or more increased their exposure to equities in 2017. With the equity market shooting up last year, the rise in the number of multi-millionaires is nothing to be wondered at.

Other assets in which Indians increased their exposure by more than the global average were private equity, alternative investments and bonds. In property and gold, the number increasing their exposure was much less than the global average (see chart).