Record high of Chinese billionaires

The number of billionaires on the Chinese mainland has hit a record high, mainly boosted by inflating stock prices in the sectors where the country is focusing its efforts to move up the value chain and transform its economic growth model, according to the Forbes China Rich List 2013 published on Wednesday.

A record 168 billionaires, with wealth of above $1 billion, are identified on the Chinese mainland this year, surpassing the previous high of 146 in 2011 and 113 from 2012, the magazine showed.

The latest annual list unveils the 400 richest who have a combined total net worth of 3.475 trillion yuan ($566 billion). up 35 percent from a year ago, and almost equal to 6.7 percent of China's GDP in 2012.

Real estate and entertainment tycoon Wang Jianlin, chairman of Dalian Wanda Group, tops this year's ranking, with a fortune of 86 billion yuan amid the recovery of China's real estate market.

Wang rose two spots from last year's ranking, surpassing Zong Qinghou, chairman of the country's largest beverage producer, who was the wealthiest in 2012.

"This year's list marks the fast growth of Internet-related businesses, founders of Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba are all in the top 10," Zhou Jiangong, editor-in-chief of Forbes China, told the Global Times Wednesday.

China is the world's largest market in number of mobile phone and Internet users, and Internet-related businesses have produced some of the biggest increases in fortunes.

As China is also the world's biggest auto market, eight of the top 100 are from this industry, led by Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motors, who ranks sixth with a fortune of 54.9 billion yuan.

Number four on this year's list is renewable energy entrepreneur Li Hejun of Hanergy Holding Group Ltd, with an estimated fortune worth 66.5 billion yuan.

The increase of wealth is contrary to the slowdown of the economy, mainly due to soaring stock prices for the listed firms in the Internet-related, new energy, entertainment and healthcare sectors, most of which are in the Growth Enterprise Board or ChiNext of China's A-share market, Zhou said.

Fortune is calculated based on the stock price on September 26, and net worth of those with private firms is estimated based on similar listed firms, Forbes China noted.

The rich club sees 87 newcomers this year, which also means 87 from the 2012 list are gone, Zhou said, "most of the disappeared rich people are in industries such as steel making, coal mining and shipbuilding which are labeled with overcapacity issues, and even the property sector (which generated most of the wealthiest) is experiencing a reshuffling."

Two out of the top 10 billionaires on this year's list are property tycoons, down from five from a year ago.

This rich list indicates that China is on its way to transforming its economic growth model, Bai Tian, a senior financial analyst with Round Stone Finance Academy, told the Global Times Wednesday.

The increasing population of billionaires and aggregating wealth may make it easier for private equity firms to raise funds to invest in high growth potential firms, Bai projected.

China is expected to produce more super rich over the next five years.

"We expect global wealth to rise by nearly 40 percent over the next five years, reaching $334 trillion by 2018. Emerging markets are responsible for 29 percent of that growth. China will account for nearly 50 percent of the increase in emerging economies' wealth," the recently released Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2013 projected.

In terms of global wealth, the US currently takes the lead with 45,650 ultra-high net worth individuals who possess fortunes of at least $50 million each, accounting for 45 percent of the global rich, followed by China with 5,830 representatives or 5.9 percent of the richest population worldwide, according to the report.