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There are now 2,189 billionaires worldwide with a combined wealth of $ 10.2 trillion, as the pandemic-induced stock market rally catapulted the net worth of the world’s richest to a new high.
As of July 2020, Asia-Pacific boasted the largest number of ultra-high net worth individuals, with 831 (38%) of the super-rich residing in the region, where the wealth of billionaires now totals $ 3.3 trillion, according to the Swiss bank UBS. new Billionaires Outlook Report 2020. That compares with 762 (35%) in the Americas and 596 (27%) in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
The findings, based on interviews and data from 2,000 billionaires in 43 markets, saw Asia-Pacific maintain its global position as “the engine of wealth growth,” said Anurag Mahesh of UBS Global Wealth Management at the launch of the report. on Wednesday.
Mainland China emerged as the region’s top wealth-creating market, with 415 billionaires, followed by India (114), Hong King (65), Taiwan (40), and Australia (39). The United States is home to 636 billionaires, the study found.
Wealth generators
Much of the growth in multi-billion dollar wealth observed this year was closely related to the market recovery since the dramatic sell-off in April, as the assets of the ultra-rich are often tied to the public companies they manage or invest in.
However, from 2019 until the peak of the recession in April 2020, the wealth of Asian billionaires came out relatively unscathed, falling 2.1% compared to 10.1% in EMEA and 7.4% in America. .
Manesh, Asia-Pacific co-director of UBS’s Global Family Office, said they could be related in part to the region’s dominance in two key industries, technology and healthcare, which have skyrocketed in the wake of the pandemic.
Asia-Pacific is home to the world’s largest proportion of technology and healthcare billionaires, accounting for 181 (8%) of the total population of billionaires, compared to 153 (7%) in the Americas and 88 (4%) in EMEA. Meanwhile, a growing emphasis on disruption and innovation in both sectors has helped them keep going against their more traditional peers, according to the report.
“It is interesting, but not surprising, that wealth in the tech and health sectors increased at a faster rate than other sectors. In the last decade, the wealth of billionaires in the technology sector grew 5.7 times while the wealth of billionaires in financial services sector grew 2.3 times, “said Anuj Kagalwala, partner and leader of asset and wealth management at PwC Singapore, co-author of the study.
Donations to the pandemic
The report comes as economists argue that the so-called K-shaped recovery could be the most likely outcome of the coronavirus, referring to different sectors of the economy recovering at different rates. In this case, the finances of the richest recover quickly while those of the poorest stagnate or even worsen.
The report found that 209 billionaires contributed a total of $ 7.2 billion to the pandemic from March to June 2020.
Of those, 175 (76%) were financial donors, meaning they donated money for relief efforts, while 24 (19%) were manufacturers who reused their manufacturing lines to produce equipment, for example. Ten of them (5%) were impact entrepreneurs, who contributed to long-term strategies like finding a vaccine.
UBS’s Mahesh said the research suggests it’s the “biggest increase” in giving among billionaires within that time frame.
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