China produced new billionaires almost every week in the first quarter of 2015, said a report jointly released by UBS and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) on Tuesday, showing a shift in value creation from the U.S. to Asia.
According to the 2015 Billionaire Report, 917 self-made billionaires generated more than $3.6 trillion of wealth globally between 1995 and 2014, and Asia's billionaires grabbed 36 percent of the global share, the first time it has surpassed Europe and second only to the U.S.
"Most of the billionaires in Asia are from China's consumer and real estate sectors," Zhang Lijun, managing partner of PwC China Financial Service Consulting, said at a media briefing in Beijing.
The wealth expansion is mainly due to the fever in setting up businesses and the booming capital market amid China's economic growth, Zhang said.
According to the report, nearly 20 percent of the self-made billionaires in Asia come from the consumer industry, with an average wealth of $3.2 billion, followed by billionaires from the real estate sector, which accounted for 12.9 percent among the self-made billionaires, with an average wealth of $2.7 billion.
Most of the billionaires in China are self-made and are younger than global billionaires on average, Zhang noted.
However, Chen Qing, president of UBS (China) Ltd, said the investment of billionaires in China is still concentrated in the mainland market, which may pose potential risk for their wealth.
"It is better to diversify the investments, and a long-term investment strategy is necessary," Chen told the media briefing.
Chen also noted that most billionaires in China combine the personal wealth with family wealth, while their counterparts in the U.S. like to transfer the business to professional managers.
"The wealth of many Chinese billionaires face challenges from the country's economic slowdown and the inheritance problem," Chen said.
The report predicted that the number of self-made billionaires in the world will continue to grow in the next five to 10 years, which would then form up to 70 percent of the total billionaire population, driven by the rising number from Asia and a dilution of billionaires' wealth while being transferred from generation to generation.
The report was based on more than 1,300 billionaires across 14 markets spanning 19 years, which account for 75 percent of the global billionaire wealth. It did not mention the names of any billionaires.
