Not even billionaires are immune to coronavirus

How the pandemic has affected the richest people's net worth

MORE than 200 people who were billionaires before the coronavirus pandemic lost their status as the pandemic began to tighten its grip.

As of March 18 - as measures were first put in place in the UK to control the spread of the virus - there were 2,095 billionaires across the globe, according to Forbes.

The number was down by 226 people compared to just 12 days earlier.

Meanwhile, the Hurun Research Institute has estimated that more than $408bn (£327bn) vanished from the pocketbooks of the world's richest 100 billionaires between January 31 and March 31.

That is the equivalent of a 13% loss of net worth in just two months, wiping out all gains made during the past two and a half years.

The biggest loser was Bernard Arnault - CEO and chairman of LVMH, the world's largest luxurygoods company - whose wealth was down $30bn (£24bn), at a rate of $500m (£401m) a day for the past two months.

Mukesh Ambani of India energy giant Reliance saw his wealth fall by $19bn (£15bn), at a rate of more than $300m (£241m) a day in the past two months.

Only nine of the top 100 wealthiest people on the list saw their wealth increase during that time - all of them Chinese.

In fact, two of the three biggest gainers were Chinese pork producers, including Qin Yinglin and his wife Qian Ying.

Their fortune is now worth $22 billion (£18bn) up by $3bn (£2bn) in the last two months.

However, Eric Yuan - founder and CEO of the videoconferencing platform Zoom - saw the most significant increase to his wealth overall.

His worth nearly doubled, rising from around $4bn (£3bn) to $8bn (£6bn) - although he still doesn't make it into the list of the top 100 wealthiest people.

The increase is due to the exponential use of the videoconferencing platform for online conferences and educational courses during the lockdown.

Yuan said the number of daily users has gone up from 10 million at the end of December to more than 200 million in March.

Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher at Hurun, said: “China has been the relative winner, with its stock markets weathering the virus better than its U.S. and European counterparts.

“Whilst the virus has created a surge in demand around the world for medical-equipment manufacturers, the lockdown has created a boom in videoconferencing for businesses and distance learning for children, as well as, surprisingly, Chinese pork producers.”