Big fall in wealth in China as combined fortunes of ultra-rich dips for first time since financial crisis, says UBS

There were 57 fewer billionaires on the planet at the end of last year than there were a year earlier, as the global stock market rout stripped the world’s wealthiest people of a collective $388bn (£302bn). It is the first time that billionaires’ wealth has fallen since the 2008 global financial crisis.

The number of people with a paper fortune that stretches to nine zeros fell from 2,158 in 2017 to 2,101 in 2018, according to a report by the Swiss bank UBS. Billionaires’ collective fortunes dropped by 4.3% from a record $8.9tn to $8.5tn. It is still more than eight times the value of Apple, the world’s most valuable company.

“Billionaire wealth dipped in 2018 for the first time since 2008 because of geopolitics,” said Josef Stadler, UBS’s head of ultra-high net worth clients. “The billionaire boom of the past five years has now undergone a natural correction. The stronger dollar, combined with greater uncertainty in equity markets amidst a tough geopolitical environment, has created the conditions for this dip.”

In response to a question from the Guardian about rising inequality, Stadler said his wealthy clients thought concerns about the widening gap between rich and poor was driven by “one-sided information”.

“Nobody asks how much value they create; they ask if the fraction they have is justified,” he said at the launch of the UBS report.

Stadler later told the FT in a private briefing that there was “bias in the media” in reporting on billionaires. “In the talk of inequality, the debate that they are too greedy, that they make too much money on the back of poor people,” he said.

“The data tells me that the debate is one-sided and it’s a pity. There is a natural tendency today to be critical when it comes to wealth accumulation. There is sometimes a fear that there is a new aristocracy coming.”

The report said there was an “especially sharp” fall in wealth in China and India last year. “2018 was a challenging year as the geopolitics of US/China trade friction intensified, leading to fears of lower economic growth.

“There was a dip in wealth in 2018. But in our view this should be set within the context of the broader trend of strong growth. Billionaire wealth dropped 4.3% globally, after five years when it grew by 34.5%. As the centre of economic activity shifts towards Asia, the region’s entrepreneurs are playing a strong role. There will be many more winners and losers in the years to come.”

Ranks of super-rich continue to grow despite global turmoil Read more

However, Chinese billionaires suffered the biggest losses, with their collective net worth decreasing by 12.8% because of falling stock markets, a weaker local currency, and growth in the world’s second-largest economy in 2018 slowing to its lowest level in nearly three decades.

The number of billionaires in China fell by 39 to 436. “In fact, 103 [Chinese] people’s wealth dipped below a billion dollars, while 56 made the threshold,” the report said. It added that the US tech industry, which is going through another prolonged investment boom, had created a new wave of billionaires.

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“Only the Americas bucked the trend, lifted by the fortunes of US tech entrepreneurs – there were 89 US tech billionaires at the end of 2018, up from 70 in 2017.”

The report did not detail the number of billionaires in the UK, but across western Europe there were 17 fewer billionaires than in 2017 and their collective wealth fell by 18% to $1.7tn.

Sir Philip Green, the Topshop tycoon, lost his billionaire status last year according to the Sunday Times rich list which said his fortune had halved in 2018 due to the declining value of his Arcadia fashion business. When the Guardian caught up with him earlier this year in the tax haven of Monaco Green declined to comment on the size of his fortune, which is thought to have fallen from £4.9bn in 2007 to around £950m.







