Hong Kong is leading an Asian charge up the ranks of the world's richest people, with at least 20 billionaires living in the territory, an international study shows.
The sharp increase in the numbers of super-rich based in the territory - and in Asia in general - is threatening the once unchallenged status of the United States as the home of the world's billionaires.
Five of the world's 10 richest people are Asian, including two prominent Hong Kong magnates - Henderson Land Development's Lee Shau-kee, and Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong chief Li Ka-shing.
Almost 30 per cent of the world's billionaires are now Asian-based, according to business magazine Forbes' 1996 list of the world's wealthiest people.
Two-thirds of Asian billionaires are now based outside of Japan, signalling the rapid growth in Hong Kong, Taiwanese and Asean-based business giants, in particular, over the past five years.
Of the world's 447 billionaires - with a combined worth of US$1 trillion - a total of 123 are Asian-based, with 82 of these figures coming from outside of Japan.