Mumbai surpasses Beijing to become Asia’s billionaire capital with 92 ultra-rich individuals

In a first, Mumbai has surpassed Beijing to become Asia’s billionaire capital, according to Hurun Research Institute in Shanghai.

Mumbai has 92 billionaires compared to Beijing’s 91 while New York has 119 and London 97, as per Hurun’s global rich list. Mumbai added 26 new ultra-rich to the club while Beijing lost 18.

“Mumbai was the fastest-growing billionaire capital in the world, adding 26 in the year and taking it to third in the world and Asia’s billionaire capital. New Delhi broke into the Top 10 for the first time.”

As you may have guessed, at the top of Indian billionaires list are Mukesh Ambani ($115 billion) and Gautam Adani ($86 billion). New names entering th billionaire club in the country are late Cyrus Mystry’s wife Rohiqa Cyrus Mistry who heads Sterling Investments and Ina Ashwin Dani of Asian Paints.

Real estate mogul Mangal Prabhat Lodha is Mumbai’s biggest wealth gainer with a rise of 116 per cent.

The total number of Indian billionaires surged by 94, taking the country’s billionaire club members to 271. Pharmaceutical sector boasted of highest number of Indian billionaires at 39, followed by automobile sector at 27 and chemicals sector at 24.

On the other hand, China saw a slump in the number of ultra-high net worth individuals. “China had a bad year. HK was down 20%, Shenzhen down 19%, and Shanghai down 7%,” said the research report.

With a net worth of $63 billion, China’s richest man is Zhong Shansan, founder and chairman of Nongfu Spring, a Hong Kong-listed bottled water company. He is followed by Colin Huang who founded e-commerce platform Pinduoduo and Tencent Holdings CEO Pony Ma.