The wealth of the thousand millionaires has increased 17 percent to 6 billion US dollars, in 2016, after registering a decline the previous year. Led by China, the number of billionaires in the region exceeded the United States for the first time.
The richest in the United States continue to control most of the wealth, with 2.8 trillion US dollars. The increase in the total wealth of the billionaires was twice the increase of 8.5 percent of the MSCI ACWI global index.
We can ask ourselves: On the planet, where is the largest number of billionaires concentrated? and How do the millionaires generate their fortunes?
Asia rises as the region of the thousand millionaires
The expansion of the economy in Asia has seen on average rise every day a new billionaire within the countries that comprise it. At this rate, Asia will surpass the United States, as the largest region that concentrates the world’s wealth in a period of 4 years , since they will be 1,550 billionaires.
This has been due to the combination of the geopolitical stability that is taking place in China, the increase in real estate prices within China, the spending on infrastructure, the growing middle class and the favorable prices of raw materials. . All this has helped boost the wealth of these thousand millionaires.
Therefore, 3 quarters of the new billionaires of the world come from the Asian regions such as China and India . The number of billionaires in Asia has increased by 117 to a total of 637, and the billionaires who have made their fortune saw their cash grow faster than those who have become rich with the legacies of their families.
The United States and Europe are left behind in the career of the billionaires
Unlike the Asian region, in the United States, the number of billionaires has increased by 25 to reach a total of 563 people .
The number of billionaires in Europe has remained basically the same with some 342 people, partly due to deaths and because the enterprising companies find that European countries are difficult to do their business, due to the conservative business culture as so strict regulations they have.
The 500 richest people in the country add between their fortunes around 824,000 million US dollars so far in 2017, that is, they have increased their fortunes by 19 percent. Its total net worth is estimated to reach about 5.2 trillion US dollars.
The fortunes of the European billionaires are related to the economies of their countries, so Germany , the largest economy in Europe, leads the post with 117 billionaires, the United Kingdom with 55 billionaires, Italy with 42 billionaires, France with 39 thousand millionaires and Switzerland with 35 thousand millionaires.
In Europe, in France it is the country where the patrimony of the thousand millionaires has increased over the past year with an increase of 15 percent, boosting the fortunes of a few families.
Switzerland followed with an increase of 12 percent, Spain with 10 percent, the United Kingdom with 1 percent and Germany had a slight increase in its assets above 0 per belt.
Thousands of millionaires have increased in Spain
The total assets of the Spanish billionaires have increased 10 percent over last year to reach 124.7 billion US dollars, about 105,811 million euros .
These millions of euros have been distributed last year among 25 billionaires in Spain, compared to 21 billion in 2015. In 2015, the accumulated fortune of Spanish billionaires amounted to 113,200 million dollars Americans, that is, 96,053 million euros.
The great fortunes are backed by art and sports
Their fortunes have increased thanks to the informal and formal networksthat organize agreements and investments, and this also helps with other issues that may arise from their fortunes such as philanthropy, inheritance and the accumulation of works of art.
In these last decades, a great quantity of wealth has arisen under the protection of art and sports . As art prices have skyrocketed since the turn of the century, more billionaires have made it both a status symbol and an asset.
Among the main art collectors in the world, around 150 people were billionaires last year, compared to 28 at the beginning of the 90s.
More than 140 major sports clubs around the world are owned by 109 billionaires, who are on average almost 70 years old and have an accumulated wealth of 5 billion US dollars.
There are 4 sectors to generate wealth for the billionaires
The four main sectors behind the global increase in the wealth of the billionaires through their investments during the past year have been materials, technology, financial services and industry.
The recovery of raw materials has helped increase fortunes in mining, steel and the oil industry. The increase in real estate prices in Asia and the fluctuations of the US dollar have also helped increase the fortunes of the billionaires.
During 2015, the corrections of the commodity markets and movements with the US dollar were a burden for the investments of the billionaires. For what is left of 2017 and 2018, economic growth, financial markets, raw materials and money will generate wealth for the billionaires.
About $ 2.4 trillion of the fortune of the billionaires will be transferred over the next few decades as these people die, and much of the assets of these people will be destined for philanthropic causes.
Therefore, billionaires are a key target segment, since the wealth of people with a net worth of one billionaires increases faster than the average global wealth.
