Atypical fortunes put wealth at new high

Divorce settlement hits Bezos’ net worth, but he remains world’s richest

The leveraging of a giant social media presence and a burgeoning collection of junkyards are just two of the curious ways that helped make 2019 a fertile year for fortunes to blossom around the world.

Kylie Jenner became the youngest self-made billionaire this year after her company, Kylie Cosmetics, signed an exclusive partnership with Ulta Beauty Inc. She then sold a 51% stake for $600 million.

And car wrecks proved to be a treasure trove. Willis Johnson, the gold-chain-wearing Oklahoma native who founded Copart Inc., has amassed a $1.9 billion fortune by building a network of junkyards to sell damaged autos.

The emergence of atypical fortunes underscores just how much money the uber-rich accumulated in 2019. And the richer they were at the start of the year, the richer they got. The world’s 500 wealthiest people tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index added $1.2 trillion, boosting their collective net worth 25% to $5.9 trillion.

Leading the 2019 gains was French business magnate Bernard Arnault, who added $36.5 billion as he rose on the Bloomberg index to become the world’s third-richest person and one of three centibillionaires — those with a net worth of at least $100 billion.

In all, just 52 people on the ranking saw their fortunes decline on the year. Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos was down almost $9 billion, but that drop is because of his divorce settlement with MacKenzie Bezos. The e-commerce titan is still ending the year as the world’s richest person after Amazon shares jumped Thursday following the company’s report of a “record-breaking” holiday season.

Here’s what 2019 looked like

for the 0.001%:

Winners

■ The 172 American billionaires on the Bloomberg ranking added $500 billion, with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg up $27.3 billion and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates gaining $22.7 billion.

■ Representation from China continued to grow, with the nation’s contingent rising to 54, second only to the U.S. He Xiangjian, founder of China’s biggest air-conditioner exporter, was the standout performer as his wealth surged 79% to $23.3 billion.

Declines

■ Rupert Murdoch’s personal fortune dropped by about $10 billion after proceeds from Disney’s purchase of Fox assets were distributed to his six children, making them billionaires in their own right.

■ Thomas Peterffy of Interactive Brokers Group Inc. saw his wealth slump by $2.1 billion. Investors weighed a reshaped competitive landscape for brokerage businesses after rival Charles Schwab Corp. eliminated commissions and agreed to buy TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.

■ WeWork’s Adam Neumann saw his fortune implode — at least on paper — as the struggling office-sharing company’s valuation dropped to $8 billion in October from an estimated $47 billion at the start of the year. Still, SoftBank Group Corp.’s rescue package left Neumann’s status as a billionaire intact.

New billionaires

■ White Claw, the “hard seltzer” that was the hit of the summer among millennials, helped boost Anthony von Mandl’s net worth to $3.6 billion.

■ The popularity of soy milk gave eight members of Hong Kong’s Lo family a combined $1.5 billion.

NEW YORK TIMES Bernard Arnault, Europe’s richest man, added almost $37B to his estate and became one of three centibillionaires in the world. Arnault controls LVMH, which purchased worldrenowned Tiffany & Co. this year.