SA compared to the world
But survey shows US has the world’s richest people
WANT to meet the billionaire of your dreams? If it is too late to attend Harvard University, then consider moving to New York, Hong Kong or Moscow.
An annual survey by intelligence firm Wealth-X and Swiss bank UBS on the world’s ultra-rich — defined as individuals with a net worth of more than $30-million (R307-million) — shows the US remains the billionaire capital of the world, although Asia is producing the highest number of new billionaires.
The US boasts 515 billionaires with a total net worth of $2.1-trillion. China, in second place, has 157 billionaires with a total net worth of $212billion, while Germany ranks third with 148 billionaires (total net worth: $432-billion). South Africa, with nine billionaires, ranked 41st.
Of the top 20 cities in the world based on their billionaire populations, five are American: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Houston.
Three Chinese cities rank among the top — Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
Of the top 10 universities by the number of billionaire alumni, nine are in the US, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cornell and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The University of Cambridge is the only non-American university in the top 10.
On a per capita basis, Luxembourg, with 24.2 billionaires per million people, is the country where you are most likely to bump into a billionaire.
It is followed by Hong Kong (10.5 billionaires per million people), Switzerland (7.6), Singapore (5.1), Kuwait (4.7), Qatar (4.7), United Arab Emirates (4.5), Austria (2.4), Saudi Arabia (2.2) and the United Kingdom (2.1).
For the world’s ultra-wealthy, the economic crisis of 2008/09 is a vague memory.
Since the market bottomed in 2009, the total combined wealth of the world’s billionaires more than doubled from $3.1-trillion in 2009 to $6.5trillion at June 2013 — more than the GDP of any country except the US and China.
Over the same period, the population of billionaires grew 60% to 2 170 billionaires, while the number of demi-billionaires, defined as individuals with a net worth of $500million to $1-billion, now totals 3 740.
But not all billionaires are created equal. Out of the 2 170, only four — Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the Mexican telecommunications entrepreneur Carlos Slim, clothing chain Zara founder Amancio Ortega and investment guru Warren Buffett — have a net worth of more than $50billion.
Globally, 111 individuals have a net worth of above $10-billion.
Their collective wealth is more than $1.9-trillion, greater than the
Since the market bottomed in 2009, the total combined wealth of the world’s billionaires more than doubled
GDP of Canada, according to the survey.
No South Africans are part of this exclusive club. Johann Rupert, South Africa’s richest man according to Forbes magazine (which includes other assets such as property and non-listed investments in its rankings) is worth only $6.6-billion, placing him 179th on the Forbes global list.
Nicky Oppenheimer, ranked 182nd, has a net wealth of $6.5-billion, according to Forbes. The only African worth $10-billion or more is Nigerian entrepreneur Aliko Dangote.
With an estimated wealth of $16.1billion, he is placed 43rd on the global ranking.
In Africa, Egypt has the largest number of billionaires (19), followed by South Africa with nine and Nigeria with seven.
Europe, the only region to decline in the number of billionaires over the past year according to the Wealth-X and UBS survey, still has the highest number of billionaires with 766, down from 795 in 2012.
This is followed by North America with 552, Asia with 508, the Middle East of 157 and Latin America with 111.
“Asia is the region that is driving the tectonic shifts in wealth; the total billionaire wealth in Asia has increased by 13%, the fastest of any region. Asia has also contributed the largest number of additional billionaires (18) to the list this year,” according to the survey.
The average billionaire is worth about $3-billion with a liquidity of 18%, meaning they have about $545million available in cash and other liquid assets per person.
“This liquidity cushion of over half a billion dollars is higher than it was before the global financial crisis of five years ago, suggesting that the old mantra of ‘cash is king’ remains as relevant as ever,” the report said.
In addition to cash, billionaires hold on average 42% in private holdings, 35% in public common stock, 3% in real estate and 2% in luxury assets such as yachts, private jets, art, antiques and collectable cars.
The billionaire club remains a mainly male affair. Of the world’s billionaires, 87% are male. Of the female billionaires, 71% inherited their wealth, compared with 15% of male billionaires.
Finally, 60% of all billionaires are self-made individuals.