More self-made billionaires to spring from Chinese tech and finance, says study
More young self-made billionaires are set to emerge from China’s tech and finance sectors thanks to capital market expansion and official boosts for start-ups, making Asia the centre for billionaire growth in the next five to ten years, a study says.
The study, jointly released by investment bank UBS and accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), found that most of Asia’s billionaires were from China and had an average age of 57, a decade younger than their US and European peers.
“We expect the trend, with more younger billionaires from Asia, to continue,” said James Zhang, PwC’s partner for China financial service consulting management.
“More self-made billionaires in China will come from the technology sector with the government’s initiatives to encourage start-ups and the hi-tech sector.”
The 2015 Billionaire Report released on Tuesday drew on data on 1,300 billionaires from 14 markets, who together had US$5.4 trillion in wealth.
Self-made billionaires accounted for about two-thirds, or US$3.6 trillion, of the wealth.
Asia was home to 36 per cent of the self-made billionaires, well ahead of Europe’s 17 per cent and second to the United States, which accounted for 47 per cent, according to the study.
The researchers said the wealth of billionaires in Asia was set to surpass that of those in the US in five to 10 yeas, following a shift in value creation from the US to Asia, particularly in China, in the last five years.
Zhang said the development of China’s financial market would fuel wealth creation from investment.
He said there were opportunities not only in the A-share market, but also in the over-the-counter market and smaller enterprises listed on the growth enterprise board in Shenzhen.
“Young entrepreneurs or start-ups in China will also be able to do financing with more funding tools in the capital market so as to grow their wealth,” Zhang said.
UBS China president Karen Chen said billionaires in China tended to invest in the local market and some were too focused on buying shares in the past.
“But they are now more intent on diversifying their investment to various markets and prefer longer-term asset allocations,” Chen said. Chinese billionaires were increasingly interested in overseas investment, Zhang said.