As COVID-19 spreads and global healthcare systems are getting overwhelmed, governments are implementing measures to curb the viral infection, global businesses have been affected and world’s top billionaires made huge loses in two months that have wiped out all gains made in the past two and a half years, according to Hurun research.
The report, released this week, which examined the impact of two months of COVID-19 outbreak on wealth, found that the world’s top 100 billionaires in industries such as technology, consumer goods, and oil had their wealth slashed by 13% or 408 billion US dollars. Top ten billionaires on the list lost a total of $125Bn.
But the circumstances which negatively hit the wealth of many billionaires on the list also made a few others record big gains. Eric Yuan Zheng, 50, CEO of Zoom, a video conference platform, saw his wealth increase by 77% from 3.5 to 8 billion dollars. With lockdown and social distancing orders in effect in many countries of the world, people, organisations and political leaders are increasingly relying on video calls.
Alex Xu Hang, 58, owner of Mindray, ventilator and life support device manufacturing firm had his wealth rise from 2.8 to 13.5 billion US dollars. The pandemic has led to a surge in the demand for ventilators to assist persons infected with COVID-19 breath.
Hurun reports that the largest individual financial loss of the past 2 months, Bernard Arnault lost an equivalent of 20 million dollars an hour, making him the biggest loser.
Stock markets across the world due to the pandemic have taken hits, resulting in some individuals losing their spots on the top 100 billionaires list. While China added 6 billionaires to the list, India lost three and the U.S lost 2.
“China has been the relative winner, with its stock markets weathering the virus better than its US and European counterparts,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report chairman and chief researcher. “Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, the world had 2816 ‘known’ dollar billionaires. Today, two months later, that number is now down by 20%, as stock markets across the world have wiped out wealth.”
Although Jeff Bezos’s wealth plunged by $9Bn in two months since the virus outbreak, Hurun reports that Amazon’s CEO is the only individual left above the $100 Benchmark – a spot he and three others broke through two months ago.
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