Mark Tran in New York
Billionaires from the tiger economies of the Far East are gaining on Bill Gates, chairman of software giant Microsoft, and Warren Buffett, America’s super investor, as the world’s richest individuals.
While Gates and Buffett are still lording it for the second year running in Forbes magazine’s 10th annual ranking of individuals and their families, many were surprised to see five of the world’s 10 wealthiest individuals come from Asia.
This reflects Asia’s growing economic clout. While America is home to a third of the world’s biggest fortunes with 149 billionaires, Asia is catching up. Although the number of Japanese billionaires remains unchanged at 41 in 1996 from 1991, elsewhere in Asia, the number has surged from 26 to 82 in five years.
So Asia, largely economically underdeveloped at the end of World War II, now boasts 28% of the world’s great fortunes. And the number of billionaires is also rising rapidly, with 447 named by Forbes this year compared with 388 in 1995.
Much of the big new money made in Asia comes from businesses such as property development, energy and natural resources — exactly the same sectors where big money was made in the US decades ago.
In the US, where the number of billion-dollar fortunes climbed by 20 to 149 in the past year, the new billions were fuelled by the continuing boom on Wall Street, coupled with the computer revolution. In Gates’s case, his wealth swelled by $5,1-billion to reach $18-billion, making him the world’s richest man.
Buffett, nicknamed the Sage of Omaha for his astute investment decisions, boosted his net worth by $4,6- billion and now has $15,3-billion. In third place is Paul Sacher of Switzerland, who presides over Roche, the pharmaceuticals giant. He is the only European in the top 10.
The richest man in Asia is Lee Shau Kee, a property tycoon based in Hong Kong, who comes in fourth. The other Asians are Tsai Wan-Lin, founder of a Taiwanese insurance empire ($12,2-billion), Li Ka- Shing, a property mogul from Hong Kong ($10,6- billion), Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, once the world’s richest man until Japanese property prices collapsed ($9,2-billion) and Tan Yu, another property man from the Philippines ($7-billion). Rounding off this group are Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, and Canadian media tycoon Kenneth Thomson.
Among the new billionaires is Nina Wang, Asia’s richest woman with an estimated worth of $3,3- billion. She took charge of Chinachem Group, Hong Kong’s largest privately-held property developer, after her husband, Teh Huei, was kidnapped in 1990. She handed over more than half the reported $60- million demanded by the captors, but her husband never reappeared.
The growing number of Asian billionaires is part and parcel of the Asian “miracle”. From 1980 to 1996, south-east Asia’s share of world economic output increased from 17% to 25%. The region’s chunk of foreign exchange holdings jumped from 10% to over 50%. With national savings rates ranging from 30 to 45%, south-east Asia is already generating nearly as much new savings each year as the US and Europe combined.
The Getty family, always associated with wealth, is way down the list with $4-billion — though ahead of Britain’s poorest billionaire, Richard Branson, who has only $1,4-billion.