Billionaires

Posted by jesse on May 11, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments

China Drives Growth in World’s Billionaires

On this year’s Forbes list of 1,210 billionaires, China nearly doubled its count to 115 not including Hong Kong and Taiwan, with BRIC countries producing half of the world’s 214 new listees, more than doubling last year’s 97 newcomers.  However, China still trails far behind the US’s 413, which rose by 10 over 2009.  China’s gains helped to push Asia-Pacific’s total to 332 billionaires, shooting past Europe’s 300.

Forbes commented the growth in China’s super-rich is the result of three decades of incremental market liberalization that has granted “more protection to private enterprise, creating a sound base for entrepreneurs to seize opportunities and build on success”.  The story of Robin Li, charismatic young co-founder and Chairman of Baidu, China’s premier search engine and China’s new No.1 at US$9.4 billion, is a testament to the transformation of Chinese society by the Internet, wrote Forbes.  His emergence symbolized the rise of a generation of internationally savvy, highly educated private business leaders.

Also sitting pretty in the top 200 were Liang Wengen, co-founder of heavy machinery colossus Sany, 114^th with net worth of US$8 billion, and Zong Qinghou, the legendary Chairman of leading beverage company Wahaha Group, who came in at 169^th with US$5.9 billion.  Ma Huateng, Chairman of Tencent, whose wealth totalled US$5 billion, held the 208^th spot while NetEase CEO William Ding finished 440^th with US$2.6 billion.  The last spot in the top 1,000 is held by Yu Minhong, founder and President of New Oriental Education and a newcomer.  Other new inductees from the mainland include Han Junliang, Chairman of Sinovel Wind, Ma Xingtian, head of Kangmei Pharmaceutical, Zan Shengda of Jiangsu Yanghe Brewery, and Hui Lin Chit, Chief Executive of Hengan International.

Hong Kong claimed 36 listees with richest man, Li Ka-shing, leading the pack.  His wealth surged US$5 billion to US$26 billion, making him 11^th.  As well, 25 Taiwan billionaires made the list, to help total 176 for Greater China.  The top three giants remained Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helu (US$74 billion), Microsoft’s Bill Gates (US$56 billion), and investment wizard Warren Buffett (US$50 billion).

–       Forbes, China Daily, Bloomberg Businessweek, Reuters