India’s super-rich club shrinking

Source: Times of India

LONDON: The good news is India is home to 109 billionaires with an average net worth of $1.7 billion each. The bad news, however, is that compared to last year, India has seen the largest fall in super-rich population in the world.

Compared to last year, India has 485 fewer super-wealthy individuals, followed by China which lost 265 and Japan which lost 210.

The country’s super-rich club — those worth at least $30 million — has 7,730 members with a combined worth of $925 billion. Among them, the largest chunk is of the ultra high-net worth individuals (UHNWIs) who are worth $30 million to $49 million.

They make up 45.7% of the total UHNW population in India with a combined fortune of $125 billion or 13.5% of the total wealth of the India’s ultra affluent.

This is significantly higher than most of its immediate neighbours — Pakistan (310 super-rich), Bangladesh (85) and Sri Lanka (60), or most other Asian countries like Singapore (1,305), Indonesia (785), Thailand (625) and Malaysia (780). Only Japan (12,830) and China (11,245) have more super-rich people than India.

Wealth-X’s “World Ultra Wealth Report” shows the world’s UHNW population grew by 0.6%. The growth rate of the global billionaire population, however, outstripped that growth rate by expanding at 9.4%.

There are 2,160 billionaires globally with a total wealth of $6,190 billion. This group of billionaires, representing the top 1.2% of the world’s UHNW population, controls 24% of the total fortune attributable to the ultra- wealthy. On average, these billionaires are worth $2.9 billion each.