admin
THE world’s wealthiest people are ending 2016 with $237 billion more than they had at the start, Bloomberg reported this week.
Triggered by disappointing economic data from China at the beginning, the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union in the middle and the election of United States billionaire Donald Trump at the end, the biggest fortunes on the planet whipsawed through $4.8 trillion of daily net worth gains and losses during the year, rising 5.7 percent to $4.4 trillion by the close of trading December 27, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The gains were led by Warren Buffett, who added $11.8 billion during the year as his investment firm Berkshire Hathaway Inc. saw its airline and banking holdings soar after Trump’s surprise victory on November 8.
Buffett, who’s pledged to give away most of his fortune to charity, donated Berkshire Hathaway stock valued at $2.6 billion in July.
“2016’s been event-driven with global news driving prices rather than fundamentals,” said Michael Cole, president of Ascent Private Capital Management, which has about $10 billion of assets under administration.
The individual gains for the year were dominated by Americans, who had four of the five biggest increases on the index, including Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, the world’s richest person with $91.5 billion, and oilman Harold Hamm.
France’s Bernard Arnault was the sole non-American representative among the five best performers, adding $7.1 billion to take his fortune to $38.9 billion. Gates remained the world’s richest person throughout the year. Amancio Ortega, Europe’s richest person and founder of the Zara clothing chain, was in second place on the index for most of the year until he ceded it to Buffett in November. Ortega, who dropped $1.7 billion in 2016, is the world’s third-richest person with $71.2 billion.
Wildcatter Hamm’s fortune was propelled by a strengthening oil price and expectations a Trump administration will slash fossil-fuel regulations.
Hamm added $8.4 billion to more than double his fortune to $15.3 billion. He led the 49 energy, metals and mining billionaires, who were the best-performing category on the ranking, adding $80 billion and reversing the $32 billion fall they had in 2015.
Billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch each dropped $2 billion after Koch Industries reported that annual revenue was estimated to be “as high as $100 billion,” compared with the estimate of “as much as $115 billion” that the conglomerate published previously. Technology fortunes were the second-best performing on the ranking, with 55 billionaires adding $50 billion to their fortunes over the year, despite worries that a Trump presidency might introduce policies that could hurt their companies.
Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos, who doubled his fortune to $60 billion in 2015, led gains among technology executives again this year, rising $7.5 billion in 2016 on robust sales growth at the online retailer. He was followed by Facebook Inc. co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, who added $5.4 billion.
Some of the industry’s biggest relative gains went to the founders of the world’s leading startups, such as Uber Technologies Inc.’s Travis Kalanick and Snap Inc.’s Evan Spiegel.
Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote, the richest person in Africa, lost $4.9 billion or one-third of his wealth as the combined effect of falling oil prices and the June devaluation of the naira pushed him to No. 112 with $10.4 billion. Dangote was the world’s 46th-richest person in June.
Wealth creation in China turned negative for the first time since the inception of the Bloomberg index five years ago, with the country’s richest losing $11 billion in 2016 amid a slump in the Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 index and a 7 percent decline for the yuan against the dollar.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. founder Jack Ma closed the year with $33.3 billion, adding $3.6 billion in 2016. He dropped in and out of his place as Asia’s richest person for the first four months of the year before claiming it for good in May after Alibaba’s finance affiliate, which is laying the groundwork for an initial public offering expected as soon as next year, completed a record $4.5 billion equity fundraising round.
China has 31 billionaires on the index with $262 billion, trailing the U.S, which has 179 billionaires who control $1.9 trillion, and Germany, whose 39 individuals have $281 billion. Russian billionaires also began to put the negative effects of U.S. and European sanctions behind them, reversing the combined $63 billion declines for 2014 and 2015 and adding $49 billion in 2016. — Bloomberg
Online Reporter