04 September 2003 02:34
5 Russians among young mega-rich
5 Russians among young mega-rich Five of the top 10 mega-rich on Fortune magazine's second international list of business people under the age of 40 grew up in a country that spent most of the last century under communist rule. Russians dominated the top 10 in the magazine's "40 Under 40" list of ultra-rich people outside the United States, released yesterday. Heirs and heiresses account for more than half of the list, but to be included they had to demonstrate that they had worked to improve their legacies. Europeans swept the rankings, with 24 people making the grade. British, Russian and Swiss nationals dominated the list. Britain also had the most entries, with eight people ranked. Five Russian tycoons made it to the top 10, with billionaire oil tycoon Roman Abramovich at No 1 with a fortune totalling US$8.3 billion (Bt339 billion). China, which began its own route down the capitalist road a decade before Russia, also has its share of the newly super-rich, with six individuals ranked on the list. Rounding out the top 10 after Abramovich are, in descending order: Swiss Ernesto Bertarelli of biotech giant Serono ($5.6 billion); German Stefan Quandt of BMW ($5.1 billion); Russian Mikhail Fridman of Alfa Group ($2.4 billion); Venezuelan Lorenzo Mendoza of Empresas Polar ($2.2 billion); Russian Mikhail Prokhorov of Norilsk Nickel ($2.1 billion); Russian Oleg Deripaska of Base Element ($1.8 billion); Russian Eugene Shvidler of Sibneft ($1.6 billion); Mexican Emilio Azcarraga Jean of Grupo Televisa, the world's largest Spanish-language media group ($1.6 billion); and India's Kumar Birla of the Birla Group ($1.3 billion). "This is a snapshot, somewhat blurry but clear enough, of those outside the US who have managed to make or hold on to at least $207 million before middle age [up from last year's cut-off of $136 million]," writes Fortune's Paola Hjelt. The only mega-rich sportsman to be listed is Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher (No 16 with $750 million), and only two women are on the list - JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series (No 24, $453 million), and Swiss Carolina Muller-Mohl of the Muller-Mohl Group (No 36, $260 million). The list shows a surprising variety in both the sources of wealth and the nationalities of those lucky or hard-working enough to tap into these sources. Oil, banking, property, media and telecoms are represented alongside software and Internet companies. Due to difficulties assessing personal wealth in certain markets, some worthy of inclusion may have missed the cut. More than a third of this year's listed people are newcomers, replacing 12 who dropped because of perhaps the greatest indignity of all: they were too old to be young and rich. -------------------- Young-ish and rich Asians included in Fortune's 2003 '40 Under 40' list are: China - William Ding of Netease, one China's largest Web portals (No 14, $826 million [Bt33.73 billion]) - Liu Hanyuan of the Tongwei Group, China's largest aquatic-feed producer (No 23, $462 million) - Wang Chuanfu of BYD (No 30, $322 million) - Guo Guangchang of Fosun High-Tech Group (No 32, $302 million) - Huang Guangyu of the Pengrun Group (No 33, $297 million) - Zhang Yong of the Linfeng Group (No 39, $233 million) Hong Kong - Richard Li of Pacific Century Group (No 17, $741 million) Japan - Hiroshi Mikitani, founder of popular Internet shopping mall Reakuten (No 20, $576 million) - Yasumitsu Shigeta of Hikari Tsushin, distributor of communications equipment (No 21, $531 million) South Korea - Kim Taek Jin of computer-games maker NCsoft (No 35, $266 million)
[AIW [Asia Africa Intelligence Wire]] |
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